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ALPHONSO T. CLEARWATER

THE

HISTORY OF

Ulster County

NEW YORK

EDITED BY

ALPHONSO T. CLEARWATER, LL.D.

MEMBER OF THE NEW YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY; OF THE ULSTER HIS-
TORICAL SOCIETY; OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF NEWBURGH
BAY AND THE HIGHLANDS; OF THE MINNISINK
HISTORICAL SOCIETY, ETC.

97V. 1oi

Published by

W. J. VAN DEUSEN

Kingston, New York
1907

The Berkeley Press
218 William Street
New York

INTRODUCTION^ ,

<16130

BY THE EDITOR

No County in the State has annals of more striking interest than
Ulster. Second only to New York and Albany in antiquity Ulster
from the earliest period was the theatre of important and romantic
events. Traversed by the great Indian trails which formed the
aboriginal highways between the Hudson, the Delaware and the Susque-
hanna, the strategic importance of its situation was known for centuries
to the red men and from their first acquaintance with it acknowledged by
the whites. Upon its soil the first constitution of the State was framed,
the first constitutional Governor was inaugurated and the first Grand Jury
under the constitution empaneled by the State’s first Chief Justice. Its
history never has been adequately written because an exhaustive work
v/ould fill many royal octavo volumes, and never can be prepared or pub-
lished without governmental aid. The Republic is too young for Amer-
icans to regard local history with the veneration accorded it in older
lands. Our people look forward, not backward, and so little are they
interested in the lives and achievements of their ancestors that they are
reluctant to contribute to governmental expenditure the sole object of
which is to preserve the account of them.

Nearly twenty-seven years have passed since the publication of Judge
Sylvester’s History of the County. Since that time Marius Schoon-
maker’s History of Kingston, Benjamin M. Brink’s History of Saugerties.
Ralph LeFevre’s History of New Paltz, Dr. Van Santvoord’s History of
the One Hundred and Twentieth Regiment, General Gates’s History of
The Ulster Guard in the War of the Rebellion, a Commemorative Bio-
graphical Record of the Men of the County, the Records of the First
Dutch Church of Kingston, by the Reverend Roswell Randall Hoes, the
Records of the Huguenot Church of New Paltz, Dr. Anjou’s Probate

INTRODUCTION.

Records and Mr. Brink’s Olde Ulster have been published, and the early
Dutch Records of the County have been translated into English under
the supervision of the editor of this work by Mr. Dingman Veersteg, the
official translator of the Holland Society. All of these are invaluable con-
tributions to the early history of Ulster, but many generations will pass
before a complete and authoritative history of the County will appear.
It follows that this modest work makes no pretense to that rank. It is a
collation of data by a staff of contributors consisting of the most accurate
and brilliant writers in their respective fields in the County, who here
crystallize and preserve the material they have gathered from many
sources. Never so far as I am aware, has any local history in any county
been prepared as this has been. Each writer is in a position to speak with
absolute authority upon the subject of which he treats, and it was the in-
tention of the editor that each should present in the most attractive and
concise form such material relative to the matter of which he writes as
had not appeared in previous publications. How far that hope has been
realized the gentle and critical reader will judge. It is the habit of many
to deride those biographical sketches without which it is impossible to
publish any local history. For the future historian the sketches of the
men whose names appear in this volume will be of great value. Some of
their contemporaries will read them in that censorious spirit which al-
ways finds satiric expression when others are spoken of. It has been
the aim of the editor to limit the sketches to a statement of such facts
as will be of interest to the reader of to-day and of importance to those
of the years to come. That the work contains many errors is inevitable.
The orthography of proper names will be, as always it has been, a source
of criticism, but to those familiar with the subject the changes in spelling
in the course of centuries is an interesting study. In extracts from an-
cient documents and official records the spelling there found usually has
been retained. No attempt has been made to give uniformity to names as
that is an impossible and thankless task. Everyone knows that different
families known to be descended from a common ancestry, frequently in-

INTRODUCTION.

sist on a different mode of spelling. There are for instance seventeen
different methods of spelling the name of the editor of this work, and
thirty-two different ways of spelling the much simpler name of one of his
ancestors, Deyo.

The greater part of the material of this volume appears in print for the
first time. There are two omissions. No account of Methodism or of
the Baptist Faith appears. To none will this be a matter of greater regret
than it is to the editor of this work. The most prominent Methodist and
Baptist Clergymen in the County agreed that they would write for the
work an historical account of their respective denominations, and the
matter was entrusted to them. Both re-considered their promise, and in
consequence the great branches of the Christian Church they so admirably
adorn fail of representation here.

If my colleagues and myself have helped to perpetuate the memory of
the heroism, the fortitude, the sufferings and the achievements of the men
and women who placed Ulster in the foremost rank of the Counties of
America, we shall be content.

Kingston, February 22, 1907.

A. T. Clearwater.

CONTENTS

PART I.

The County of Ulster

CHAPTER I.-XIV.

PAGE

.... 17

The City of Kingston

CHAPTER XV.

The Town of Denning

CHAPTER XVI.

The Town of Esopus

CHAPTER XVII.

The Town of Gardiner

CHAPTER XVHI.

•••• 253

The Town of Hardenburgh . ,

CHAPTER XIX.

.... 258

The Town of Hurley

CHAPTER XX.

By Charles E. Foote

The Town of Lloyd

CHAPTER XXL

.... 268

The Town of Marbletown. . .

CHAPTER XXII.

By Clarence T. Frame..

.... 275

The Town of Marlborough...

CHAPTER XXIII.

287

The Town of New Paltz

CHAPTER XXIV.

306

The Town of Olive

CHAPTER XXV.

By De Witt C. Davis

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XXVI.

PAGE

The Town of Plattekill

CHAPTER XXVII.

. 332

The Town of Rochester

By Charles E. Foote

CHAPTER XXVIII.

343

The Town of Rosendale

CHAPTER XXIX.

354

The Town of Saugerties . . . .

360

CHAPTER XXX.

The Town of Shandaken...

By Henry Griffeth

CHAPTER XXXI.

366

The Town of Shawangunk..

By Charles E. Foote

CHAPTER XXXII.

373

The Town of Ulster

By Charles E. Foote

CHAPTER XXXIII.

380

The Town of Wawarsing. . .

By Hon. Thomas E. Benedict

CHAPTER XXXIV.

384

The Town of Woodstock...

CHAPTER XXXV.

403

The Reformed Protestant Dutch Church

By Rev.

John Garnsey Van Slyke, D.D

CHAPTER XXXVI.

409

The Roman Catholic Church

By Monsignor, the Very Reverend

416

Richard Lalor Burtsell, D.D

CHAPTER XXXVII.

The Presbyterian Church

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

459

The Episcopal Church

CHAPTER XXXIX.

465

The Lutheran Church

472

CONTENTS.

The Society of Friends

The Bench and Bar

The Medical Profession

The Newspapers of Ulster..

The Masonic Fraternity

The Schools of the County. .
The Shipping of Twaalf skill
Bluestone

CHAPTER XL. page

By De Witt Ostrander 477

CHAPTER XLI.

By Hon. John J. Linson 481

CHAPTER XLH.

By Henry Van Hoevenberg, M.D.^.. 491

CHAPTER XLIH.

By Jay E. Klock 504

CHAPTER XLIV.

By John E. Kraft 512

CHAPTER XLV.

By Professor S. R. Shear 517

CHAPTER XLVI.

By Henry H. Pitts 536

CHAPTER XLVH.

.By Charles E. Foote 54i

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES

PART II.

545

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER

By E. M. RUTTENBER

CHAPTER I

LOCATION AND TOPOGRAPHY.

The County of Ulster, in the State of New York, is located on the
west bank of Hudson’s River along which it extends for a dis-
tance of forty miles, beginning about sixty-two miles north from
Nev/ York City. Its County Seat, the City of Kingston, its largest and
most populous town, is in longitude 74 degrees west from Greenwich, and
latitude 41 degrees 55 minutes north. It is one of the original, or “Mother
Counties” of the State, and has, at different times, had portions of its
territory taken for the creation of new counties required for the more
convenient transaction of official business in outlying districts.

Situated to a considerable extent between the Catskill Mountains on
the northwest, the Shawangunk Mountains on the southwest and the
Highlands on the south, the county viewed from a commanding ele-
vation presents the appearance of a great basin, with mountains and
high hills on nearly every side, with the lower portion cut up into smaller
sloping hills and gently undulating lowlands, through the valleys of
which streams and streamlets take their way.

In the northern part of the county extending from northeast to
southwest, is one of the main ranges of the Catskill Mountains, the
most southerly of that system. Their lofty peaks, lifting their majestic
heads high in air, present an aspect of grandeur rarely equalled. In some
places the ascent of the mountain sides is easy and gradual, while in
others it is rocky and broken and steep, and covered with boulders; in
still other places sheer cliffs, impossible of ascent, a thousand to two
thousand feet in height. In these mountains arise innumerable streams,

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

some of which rush down the steep sides, and some through the beds
of ravines hundreds of feet deep, having almost vertical sides. These
ravines are locally called “cloves,” as though, through some mighty
convulsion of nature, the “huge mountain had been cloven asunder, as
by the Almighty stroke of an Eternal sword.”

About the same formation is found in the Shawangunk Mountains.
These mountains extend from northeast to southwest in the south-
western part of the county, and are the most northerly range of the
Alleghanys. These are not quite so high as the Catskills, but are of the
same general formation. On the northwest and merging in the Catskill
range or Blue Hills, so called from the reflected color of the rocks, which
stand at the head of the Esopus Valley and spread over Sullivan County.

The Shawangunk range takes that name from a particular place in
the present town of Shawangunk, from which it was extended to the
hills * which were otherwise known of record as the High Hills, and
the Steep Rocks. The highest elevation in the range is known as High
Point, in New Jersey, better known in some connections as Hawk’s Nest.
The second in elevation is known as Sam’s Point, in the present town
of Wawarsing, about seven miles south of the Village of Ellenville. It
takes its familiar name from Samuel Gonsaulus, an early settler and
owner. Gertruyd’s Nose, so called from the fancied resemblance of the
shadows of some of the massive rocks that stand on its brow to the nose
of the wife of Jacobus Bruin who held the ownership of the patent, and
who was succeeded in that relation by his widow, Gentruyd Bruin. North,
the third highest elevation is now called Mohonk — historically, Moggonck,
or Paltz Point. The elevation is divided from Gertruyd’s Nose by what
is known as The Traps, a pass or clove some six hundred and fifty feet
wide, extending through the range and presenting the appearance of the
hill having slipped apart. The name was primarily given on the pre-
sumption that the rocks on either side of the pass were Trapean, which,
however, is not the fact. The pass is the purely natural result of a fault in
the rocks from which the softer material was washed away leaving rugged
clear-cut banks, which invite not only geological study, but the study of
chronology. The three surviving Indian names that may be regarded

* The name is of record first in a deed to Governor Dongan in 1684, as that of a certain piece or
tract, which was later conveyed by patent to Thomas Lloyd. It was never spoken as the name
of the mountain or of the Indian fort until later. It means “at or on the hillside,” and aptly
described Lloyd’s land in part. It adjoined Col. Rutsen’s tract called Nescotack, later Guilford.

LOCATION AND TOPOGRAPHY.

as names of particular elevations are Aioskawasting, Pitkiskaker, and
Moggonck. It may be stated here that the Indians had no names for'
continuous ranges; where there were hills grouped they said Adchue-
Kontu, “Where there are many hills/’ or plenty of hills.

About three-quarters of a mile west of Sam’s Point is supposed to
be, but is not, the original historic pond referred to in early land papers
as Maretange. The name is English, not Indian, as some suppose. It
means simply a pond the water of which is sour or offensive to the
taste. The water of the pond or lake is in evidence that the name never
belonged to it. About one mile north of Sam’s Point lies what was
called in local records The Great Salt Pond, so called it is said from
the effervescent salt which was found on the rocks which formed “Deer
Licks.” The pond is now called Lake Minniewaska. Still further north
lies what is now known as Lake Mohunk, on the historic elevation
called Moggonck above noted. Beyond Moggonck is the clove or cleft
which bears the Indian name of Tawarataque, now fancifully written
Tower-a-tauch. The elevation known as the Sandberg, or Zand-berg, is
the boundmark of the great Minnisink and the Hardenburgh patents.
With the exception of Maretange the lakes named now form attractive
features of summer resorts. In the town of Gardiner are the famed
Verkeerde Falls, a cataract of about seventy feet, now called Awosting*
Falls.

On the west side of the Shawangunk range the rocks are precipitous ;
on the east side in many large districts the land has the appearance of
having been shaved off and the rocks pulverized as by the slipping of
an iceberg during the Ice Age, and the valley of the Wallkill, near the
base of the range, bears the evidence of the path through which the bergs
passed to the ocean. These hillsides are generally very fertile, particularly
in grasses, from which the ancient milk and butter of this and original
southern Ulster was famous. As a basin for the wash of the hills on its
three borders its three valleys, the Esopus, the Groot Esopus and the
Wallkill, had primarily no equal in the province for production.

Probably no locality within the whole Appalachian system of moun-
tains presents more interesting phases than Ulster County, from a
geological standpoint. The rocks are those of the very earliest periods,
those of the newer era being unknown. There are no indications of the
carboniferous period; the highest points in the county show on their

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

tops the white pebbly conglomerate which, in some other parts of the
Appalachian systiem, underlie the coal deposits. It almost seems as
though this particular section was subjected to greater upheaval than
some others during the cataclysms by which the surface was buckled into
mountains, and, the tops of those of this locality, being higher than those
surrounding, became the “snag” on which great glaciers stuck, which
ground the mountains into valleys which, on the subsidence of the waters,
were left filled with the alluvium of the erosion. The break in the con-
tinuity of the mountain ranges, as well as the rock formations, which
underlie the soils of the valleys, and the scratched and broken sides of
some of the mountains, give standing, if not actual value to this view.

The more ancient rocks in Ulster County belong to the Silurian and
Devonian periods of the Palaeozoic era, and are covered deep with drift
and alluvium. They lie in their respective series, and extend across the
county from the southeast to the northwest. The oldest lie in the town
of Marlborough.

The limestone is highly magnesian, and probably belongs to the Cal-
ciferous or Primordial epoch of the Silurian age. Some of its layers make
cement.

The slates of the Hudson River period of the lower Silurian age
underlie the towns of Lloyd, Plattekill, Shawangunk, Gardiner and New
Paltz, except that the lower rocks of the Niagara period of the upper
Silurian age are found along the northwestern borders of Shawangunk,
Gardiner and New Paltz, while in the northwestern part of Esopus are
found some of the upper strata of the Niagara period, and the lower
strata of the Helderberg period of the upper Silurian. The slates have
been in demand for many years for sidewalk, hearth and flooring pur-
poses, and the sandstones are extensively quarried for buildings, and
other commercial uses.

Along the northwest portion of Shawangunk, Gardiner and New Paltz,
overlying the slates, is what is locally known as the “Shawangunk grits,”
but is properly the Oneida conglomerate. It has been extensively used for
millstones since very early days, being fully equal, it is said, to the best
imported stones. They are called the Esopus Millstones, but the principal
production has been in the Town of Rochester.

“The Ellenville lead mines,” says Hon. James G. Lindsley, of Rondout,
who prepared a most able article on the subject about a quarter of a

LOCATION AND TOPOGRAPHY.

century ago, “belong to this formation, and there are other like deposits
of ore. The overlying Medina sandstone is not found in many places,
but there are points about High Falls, in the town of Marbletown, where
it shows considerable thickness.”

“Rocks representing the Niagara epoch are those coralline limestones
lying above and below the stone known as dark cement stone, and of
which it also constitutes a part. They lie above and conformably to the
Medina and Clinton as far east as the town of Rosendale, through the
southeasterly portions of the towns of Wawarsing, Rochester and
Marbletown; but to the north and east of this, through the town of
Ulster, City of Kingston, and town of Saugerties, they lie upon and
conformably to the Hudson River slates.”

There are immense quarries of these rocks, which are used for the
manufacture of cement, a prominent industry in the towns of Marble-
town, Rosendale and at Rondout, in the City of Kingston.

“Above these Niagara rocks, and conforming to them, are the water
limestones of the lower Helderberg.” “These water limestones, known
as light cement, also form an important part of the material in the manu-
facture of cement, being added in due proportion to the dark cement of
the Niagara.”

“Rising above the water-line, we find nearly or quite all of the series
of the lower Helderberg running the whole length of the County, the
first being the Tentaculite, which is a fine building stone. It is crowned
by rocks known as the Stromatopora limestone, — a very coarse stratum
of corals and sponges.”

“Above this comes the lower Pentamerous limestone, a heavy blue
limestone.” “Then we have the Catskill or shaly limestone, the encrinial
limestone, and the upper Pentamerous limestone.” “This latter contains
a layer of fossiliferous limestone excellent for making lime and fluxing
iron.” “This series of rocks of the lower Helderberg can be recognized
at almost all the points where cement stone is quarried, but notably at
the Vleight Bergh at Rondout, the Fly Mountain, at Eddyville, and the
Yoppen Bergh in Rosendale.” “The later rocks of the Silurian age,
known as the Oriskany sandstone, has few exposures, though it may
be seen in places between Rondout and Wilbur along the bank of the
Rondout kill, at Glen Erie, and at points in the town of Rosendale.”

“The rocks of the Devonian age all lie to the southwest of those just

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

described, and the lower series of them extend through the towns of
Wawarsing, Rochester, Marbletown, Hurley, Kingston (City and town),
Ulster and Saugerties. The first of them is known as the Canda Galla
grit. It is a rather soft shale and where exposed crumbles by action of
the weather. It is generally called slatestone, but it is not true slate.”
The high ridge above Rondout and extending northward to Saugerties,
is of this formation, which also underlies most of the old Lucas Turn-
pike which extends southwest from Kingston.

“The Carniferous limestones, lying above these grits, are a marked
feature of the county, extending as they do, through its entire length
and often much exposed.’* These have been extensively quarried for
construction purposes where great solidity is required. Many of the
lock stones of the canal, and much of the heavy foundations of the Brook-
lyn bridge are of this stone, as are also many of the fine historic man-
sions along the Esopus Creek road.

“The Marcellus shale rises in a bluff along the left bank of Esopus
Creek, in its northwest course through Marbletown, Hurley, Ulster and
Saugerties. The lower layers are soft and friable.

“The Hamilton beds lying above the Marcellus shale, is the forma-
tion from which the product known as bluestone is obtained.” “Quar-
ries of this stone are found in the towns of Hurley, Kingston, Ulster,
Saugerties, Woodstock, Shandaken, Olive, Marbletown, Rochester and
Wawarsing.” It also exists in Denning and Hardenburgh.

“It is now conceded that the higher layers of the mountains belong to
the Chemung Period, with traces of the subcarniferous on some of the
loftiest peaks.”

“Coming down to the later deposits belonging to the Quaternary age,
we find in this county long stretches of alluvial beds bordering the
streams which flow beside or make their course through it. The high
banks along the Hudson and the Esopus, like that upon which the older
part of Kingston is built, are fair representatives of the higher benches,
while the fertile intervales which border the Wallkill, the Rondout and
the Esopus are as fine specimens as can be met with anywhere of the
lower terraces of this formation ; while all the hillsides are covered
with the drift of the glacial period, and there are many evidences of the
action of the glaciers abounding in the erosion and scratching of the

LOCATION AND TOPOGRAPHY.

surface of the rocks where the drift has protected them from the effects
of the atmosphere.”

Ralph S. Tarr, Professor of Geology at Cornell University, pub-
lished a work in 1902 in which he states that the Catskills are not true
mountain ranges, but are pseudo or imitation mountains. His account of
their formation is interesting and is here reproduced in part:

“During the Devonian Period, just before the uplift of the great
interior Paleozoic Sea which accompanied the development of the Appal-
achians, the site of the Catskills was the shore line of a sea-bottom that
was gradually sinking. The land side of the shore was occupied by the
Taconic Mountains from which sediment entered the sea, where it v/as
strewn over the bottom in the region where the Catskill Mountains now
rise. Here, near the coast, coarse beds of sandstone and conglomerate
were accumulated, while further west shales and sandy shales were
being deposited. The sinking of the sea-bottom permitted these beds
to gather to great depth. Then, when the reverse process of elevation
had commenced, the sea-bottom was raised to dry land, and eventually
uplifted to the condition of a plateau. Possibly the uplift in the Catskill
region was greater than in Central New York, although of this there
is no direct proof. But in both places the elevation was accompanied
by very little disturbance of the strata, so that in the two parts of the
state the upper Paleozoic beds are still nearly horizontal.” * * *
the Catskill Mountains the topography is much more rugged and more
mountainous than elsewhere. Denudation, operating upon hard rocks of
nearly horizontal position, has carved out a complex of peaks, which,
because of the superior hardness of their rocks, rise higher than the
rest of the plateau.”

The principal streams of the county, those whose function it is to
perform the office of the leaders in the drainage arrangement, are three
in number. They are the Esopus, the Rondout and the Wallkill. Of these
the most important is the Esopus. It rises in the extreme northwestern
corner of the county, and takes a southeasterly course until it reaches a
point near the center of the town of Marbletown, not more than 12 miles
from the Hudson ; then it turns in an abrupt elbow and flows northward,
bearing a trifle easterly, and discharges its waters into the Hudson at
Saugerties. The stream is more than sixty miles in length.

The Rondout has its rise in the Town of Denning, but soon gets

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

beyond the Ulster line into Sullivan County. After making a wide cir-
cuit in that county, it re-enters Ulster across its southern boundary just
at the western base of the Shawangunk Mountains and flows northeast-
erly along their base discharging into the Hudson at Rondout. The pres-
ent name of the stream is from Dutch Rondhout, “standing timber,” the
reference being to the palisaded “Fort” which Stuyvesant erected at
Ponckhockie, which the English called a Redout.

The Wallkill, or more properly the “Waalkil,” has its rise in New
Jersey, flows thence north through eastern Orange County on a course
almost due north along the foot of the eastern slope of the Shawangunk
Mountains, and westward of the ridge of bluffs which border the Hud-
son, empties into Rondout Creek a few miles above its mouth.

There are a great variety of smaller streams tributaries to those above
mentioned. Of these the more historic are the ancient Peakadasink, so
called in 1684, now the Shawangunk, which skirts the mountain base
through Orange County, and becomes a tributary of the Wallkill in
Shawangunk. The Zandberg, the Fantine * Kill, the Wawarsing, the
Plattekill, Sawyer’s Kill, Green Kill, Mother (Modder, “Mud”) Kill, the
Little Esopus, Old Man’s Kill, Rochester Creek (the ancient Mombac-
cus), etc. The principal falls on the Rondout are Honk Falls, near Ellen-
ville, and High Falls in Marbletown. The former descend two hundred
feet of which sixty is in a single cataract; the latter has a fall of about
fifty feet; and are supposed to have been “the Second Fall,” so named in
the treaty deed of 1677; to which reference will be made in a subsequent
chapter. There are five principal ponds which the Dutch called
Binnen-water (inland water). A small lake in the towm of

Rochester retains the name of Mombaccus. In the _ town of

Woodstock a small body of water now bears the unattractive name
of Shues Lake, illustrating what an English speaking people can do with
a Dutch name when they get fairly hold of it. The original Dutch was
Schoon Meer, a very pleasant name. It means “a fine, handsome, clear,
pure lake.” The vulgar “Shue” should be obliterated from maps. The
overflow of the lake goes to the Esopus. On Old Man’s Kill, where it
unites with the Hudson in Marlborough, is a picturesque waterfall and

* The name is from Fontaine (French) meaning “a spring of water.” There seems to have
been two springs and two streams bearing the name, one on the hills near Mamakating, the Fan-
tine Kill of local history, and the other near the Catskills which formed the head of Sawyer’s or
Sawkill. The former is referred to.

LOCATION AND TOPOGRAPHY.

ravine. Coxing Kill, in Rosendale, has one of the most remarkable
Indian names of the series- — Koghksuhk-sing, “Near a high place.”
On map of U. S. Geological Survey the stream is marked as the outlet
of Minniewaska Lake, which lies in a basin of hills 1650 feet above
the level of the Hudson. Other local streams will probably be noted
in town histories. Generally speaking the water of the principal streams
is pure, and limpid, and to its excellence is attributed in a great measure
the remarkable longevity and the uniform health of the people of this
region.

The land was originally covered with forests, except strips of low-
land along the streams where the Indians planted their maize and other
crops. These were kept clear of new growths by fires which were set
by the natives after harvesting the crops in the fall.

The trees with which the land was covered were remarkable for their
great variety. A writer of that period names among others Oak, Hickory
(Nutwood), White and Yellow Pine, Chestnut, several kinds of Beech
(among them Water-beech, which grows very largely along the streams,
larger than most of the trees of the country — evidently meaning the
Buttonwood), Maple, Whitewood — which grew very large, two kinds of
Ash, Birch, Linden, and some others. Of the fruit bearing trees there are
given as growing wild the Mulberry, Wild Cherry, several kinds of Plum,
Juniper and Apple (bearing small fruit, but of several varieties). Of the
fruits there are mentioned, in addition to those named, Hazel Nuts, Black
Currants, Gooseberries, Blue Indian Figs, and Strawberries (which ripen
continuously from “half May until July”) Raspberries, Black Caps, etc.,
with Artichokes, Ground Acorns, Ground Beans, Wild Onions, Leeks, and
several others.

Among the most prolific and plentiful of the vegetable growths found
in the county by the early settlers, were the endless varieties of grape
vines. They are said to have grown everywhere. The woods were full
of them, their great stems denoting great age “being often as thick as a
man’s leg,” and their long vines climbing through and over trees in their
search for sunlight. The fact that the fruit, while beautiful to look upon,
was “sour, harsh, fleshy, and strong,” was attributed solely to the fact
that neither the growing grapes nor the roots of the vines were ever
visited by the sun’s rays, the former being shaded by the foliage of the
trees, and the latter by the density of the forest growth.

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

In some parts of New Netherland, in the early days of settlement, cut-
tings were brought from Holland of some of the finest varieties of grapes,
and at the proper season grafted into some of the old stems and properly
trained and cultivated with more than satisfactory results. There do not
seem to be any verified instances of this, however, in Ulster County,
though it is very probable that it was done, as the early population was
composed of persons above the average in intelligence and education.

Among the native flowers were the sunflower, red and yellow lillies,
mountain lillies, morning stars, red, white and yellow maritoffles and
several species of bell-flowers. The very earliest Dutch settlers brought
an almost infinite variety of flowers, which grew and still grow luxuri-
ously in almost every portion of the county, but the above named are
the native ones, found growing spontaneously.

Of the garden vegetables, it is difficult to determine in many instances
which are native and which of European origin. Among those which
seem to be purely native are the different varieties of squashes (the
cucurbita) which are described as being delicious in flavor, easy to
digest, and nutritious. Tomatoes, also, are said to be indigenous to the
soil, as are some varieties of beans.

Melons of several varieties were found here by the Dutch settlers,
also cucumbers ; but Indian legend traced them to Spanish or Portuguese
origin, seeds having been brought from the south by migratory savages.
The soil accommodated itself so readily to every sort of garden vegetable
that in the very earliest years of the settlement every variety known to
Holland was grown here.

The maize or Indian corn, or Turkey wheat, which the first traders
found here growing in abundance, and forming one of the principal fo'od
staples, has long been supposed to be native. It was cultivated on the
benches and along the creeks of what is now Ulster County, and grew
‘'to great heighth, and with enormous bearing.” Investigation seems to
show, however, that instead of being primogenial here, it was trans-
planted from a foreign shore. The oldest Indians stated that neither
their fathers nor grandfathers could remember when it was not grown,
but that there were old legends which indicated that it came from the
south — handed from tribe to tribe as the years succeeded each other —
and was changed from what may have been an original Spanish corn by
the variation of soil and climatic conditions.

LOCATION AND TOPOGRAPHY.

Wheat, barley, oats and buckwheat grew profusely when planted by
the early settlers, but care had to be used in selecting the proper location
for various crops, as otherwise the strength of the soil would produce
such enormous growths of stalk as to practically destroy the value of
the crop. Some of the grains, however, like rye and barley, would pro-
duce enormously, ‘‘with stalks six or seven feet tall.”

Of the wild animals at the date of the first settlement of the county,
(the Esopus Valley) they do not vary from the general rule in this
climate in America. That there were lions here was proven by the fact
that the Indians had lion’s (probably panther’s) skins, and brought them
for sale. Bears were plentiful, but always the black species, which were
not dangerous unless attacked; there were also buifalo, and even at the
early date of 1652 efforts were made to cross them with domestic cows,
brought from Holland bred animals. The plan does not seem to have
been successful. There were deer in abundance, moose, wolves, wild cats,
foxes, raccoons, mink, hares and rabbits. The latter were easily tamed.
There were beavers, otters, muskrats, lynxes, squirrels, etc., and the
streams were filled with fishes of many different varieties.

The feathered tribe, the birds of native origin were numerous, and
some of them gorgeous in the coloring of their plumage. The birds o^
prey, like the eagle, the hawk, the crow and others seem to have decreased
with the advance of civilization, but are still found. Swans were abundant
in all the coves of the Hudson. One early writer states that they were
white with them. From their presence about Kingston, in 1673, the
name of that settlement was changed to Swanandale.

Ulster County is bounded, according to the revised statutes of the
State of New York, as follows:

“Beginning in the middle of Hudson’s River, opposite to the north
end of Wanton Island, and running thence in a direct line to the said
north end; then north forty-eight degrees west four hundred and forty-
five chains, to the west bounds of the patent granted to Johannes Hollen-
beck ; then along the same south eight degrees west seventy-one chains
to or near the end of a stone wall in the forks of the road between the
houses now or heretofore of Hezekiah Wynkoop, and Daniel Drum-
mond ; then north eighty-nine degrees west, eighty-seven chairs to stones

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

near a chestnut tree cornered and marked, being the corner ot lots num-
bered one and two in the subdivision of great lot number twenty-six of
the Hardenburgh patent; then along the division line between the said
lots north fifty-nine degrees and thirty minutes west, seventy-eight
chains to a rock-oak tree, being the corner of the land now or heretofore
of Gilbert E. Palen and Jonathan Palen; thence south twenty-four
degrees west four hundred and eleven chains to the line run by Jacob
Trumpbour in the year one thousand eight hundred and eleven, for the
division line between the counties of Ulster and Greene; thence along
the said line until it intersects the northeasterly bounds of Great lot
number eight in said patent; then along said bounds to the easterly
bounds of the county of Delaware ; then along the same southwesterly co
the bounds of the county of Sullivan ; then southeasterly along the same to
the county of Orange; then easterly along the northerly bounds of the
county of Orange to the middle of Hudson’s River, and then up along
same to the point of beginning.” The area included in these limits is
1,204 square miles, or 760,560 acres.

Bather -

THE ABORIGINAL PEOPLE.

CHAPTER II.

THE ABORIGINAL PEOPLE.

The aboriginal people of Ulster differed in no essential respect from
their contemporaries in other parts of the once great wilderness.
Untouched by demoralization from contact with rude European
civilizations, they were a fine people. In speaking of them reference must,
in justice, be had to their character and personal appearance at the time of
the discovery of the continent. Verazzano, who sailed along the coast of
North America in 1524, wrote of those whom he met in the bay of New
York as being of middle stature, broad across the breast, strong in the
arms, and well formed ; that in clothing they were “dressed out with the
feathers of birds of various colors.’’ Among those who came on board
his vessel in Narragansett Bay he noted particularly “two Kings more
beautiful in form and stature than can possibly be described. One was
about forty years old, the other about twenty-four.” “They were dressed,”
he added, “in the following manner : The oldest had a deer’s skin around
his body, artificially wrought in damask figures, his head was without
covering, his hair was tied back in various knots; around his neck he
wore a large chain ornamented with many stones of different colors.”
The young man was “similar in his general appearance.” The persons
described w^ere types of the race. The former was possibly the historic
Sachem Caunounicus, and the latter his nephew Miantunnomu, the
men who welcomed Roger Williams as a friend. The visitors who accom-
panied the chiefs, he writes, “in size exceeded us ; their complexion
tawny, inclining to white; their faces sharp, their hair long and black,
their eyes black and sharp, their expression mild and pleasant, greatly
resembling the antique.” The women were “of the same form and
beauty, very graceful, of fine countenances and pleasing appearance in
manner and modesty.” They wore no clothing “except a deer skin
ornamented like those of the men.” Some had “very rich lynx skins upon
their arms, and various ornaments upon their heads, composed of braids
of hair which hung upon their breasts on each side.” The older and tlie

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

married people, both men and women, '‘wore many ornaments in their
ears, hanging down in the oriental manner.'’ In disposition they were
generous, giving away whatever they had; of their wives they were
careful, always leaving them in their boats when they came on ship-
board, and their general deportment was such that with them, he says,
“we formed a great friendship.”

Similar is the picture drawn by Hendrick Hudson, in 1609, those
whom he met on the waters of the stream now bearing his name. “This
day,” he wrote, “Many of the people came abroad, some in mantles of
feathers, and some in skins of divers sorts of good furs. Some women
also came to us with hemp. They had red copper tobacco pipes, and other
things of copper they did wear about their necks.”

These pictures are good to look upon in contrast with those of which
many have been drawn of the Indian in later years, the civilization which
he had wrought out for himself turned back in the presence of the new
civilization which had been thrust upon him — his ancient lessons worth-
less, his new lessons a mystery —

“His heraldry a broken bow ;

His very name a blank;’*

a man — a wreck.

Notwithstanding the efforts of theologians to connect the race through
Adam with other races, the fact remains that they were a native people ;
a creation of the Quartenary Age, or age of man, that indefinable period
which we dismiss with a name; a race that was wholly indigenous, had
borrowed nothing — absolutely nothing — from either Europe, Asia or
Africa; a race as distinct in type as any other race and from its isolation
probably the purest of all native races in its social traits.

When they were discovered the race had wrought out unaided a
development far in advance of any of the old barbaric races of Europe.
They were still in the age of stone, but entering upon the age of iron.
Their implements were mainly of stone and flint and bone, yet they had
learned the art of making copper pipes and ornaments. This would rank
their civilization as about with that of the Germans in the days of Tacitus
(about the year 200 A. D.) They had, unaided by the civilizations of
Europe — for to the Europeans they were never known prior to Colum-
bus — made great progress. They had learned to weave cloth from wild
hemp and other grasses ; had learned to extract dyes from vegetable-

THE ABORIGINAL PEOPLE.

substances ; how to make earthen pots and kettles ; how to make large
water casks from the bark of trees, as well as the lightest and fleetest
canoes ; had passed from the cave to the dwelling-house ; had established
the family relation and democratic forms of government; their wives
were the most faithful, their young women the most brilliant in paint
and garments of feathers and robes of furs ; they carved figures on stone
and wrote the story of their lives in hieroglyphics of which some of the
finest specimens in America are preserved in the Senate House in
Kingston, and most remarkable of all, and that which carries their
chronology back to a period that cannot be defined, they had developed
spoken languages that were rich in grammatical forms, differing radically
from any of the ancient and modern languages of the old hemisphere,
languages which were surely indigenous and of which it .was said by the
most expert philologists of Europe that they were among “the most
expressive languages dead or living.” A native race than whom no
superior was ever discovered ; a race pure from creative hands, unmixed,
original, and which may well command our reverence, and lead us to
more careful study. They were savages, or barbarians as you may please
to call them, men who wrote their vengeance in many scenes of blood,
the recital of which around the firesides of the pioneers became more
terrifying by repetition ; nevertheless they were representatives of a
race whose civilization, though it was twelve hundred years behind our
own, had no faults greater than were found in the races from which we
boast our lineage.

As the aborigines came to be classed from language, at a later date,
they were included in two general divisions known as the Algonquins and
the Iroquois, terms conferred by the French in Canada as the languages
were there met by the Jesuit missionaries especially. The Algonquins
were by far the most numerous and were mainly seated on the Atlantic
coast, including eastern Canada, Maine, the New England States, east-
ern New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Vir-
ginia, etc. The Iroquois occupied particularly central and western New
York, where they had their principal seat, including the Mohawk River,
the head waters of the Delaware, the Great Lakes, and the St. Lawrence,
and were known as the Five Confederated Nations. The most eastern
nation was the Mohawk, called by the Dutch Maquas, a branch of which
on the lower Delaware was called the Minquas. Of the same linguistic

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

stock were the Tuscaroras of North Carolina, who later removed to New
York, and became the sixth nation of the Confederacy, and the Cherokees
and some other southern people. The Algonquins, whose principal seat
W’as on the lower Delaware at Philadelphia, called themselves Lenape, or
“original people’' and came to be known familiarly as the Delawares.
Both the Lenape and the Iroquois were divided in totemic tribes, as the
tribe of the Turtle, the tribe of the Turkey, and the tribe of the Wolf,
among the Delawares, and the tribes of the Turtle, the Bear, and the Wolf
among the Mohawks. These tribes were again divided in sub-tribes or
families each with a principal head, father or founder of a family. A
number of these families combining for mutual defense and interests,
the several sachems or heads of families elected one of their number as
chief sachem, and was regarded as a nation, i. e. a political division that
made its own laws, treaties, etc., and engaged in wars with other nations
similarly constituted, but mainly with antagonistic Iroquoian stocks. The
nations were not necessarily composed entirely of one primary totemic
tribe ; on the contrary they were mixed more or less. In the Delaware
combinations the Minsi, or Wolf tribe, and the Unalachtigo, or Turkey
tribe, spread over New Jersey, eastern New York and eastern Pennsyl-
vania, and extended in sub-tribes or nations north along the Hudson to
the Katskills, those dwelling between the Dans Kamer and Zager’s Kil,
appearing of record first, in 1614-16, as the Waronawanka, “People of
the cove or bay,” which became local at what is now the cove or bay
south of Kingston Point, “where a creek comes in, and the river becomes
more shallow,” as described by De Laet, but contemporaneously, from
a companion term on the same map record, as Esopus, from Sepuus
(generic Alonquin), “A small river,” or small by comparison, from
v/hich it was extended to the people in occupation as the Esopus Indians,
by which they were known and are still known historically, who repre-
sented a combination of four sub-tribes or families whose names are of
record as the Amangarickan, the Kettyspowy, the Mahou, the Katatawis,
whose Chief Sachem was Sewakenamo, successor of Pruemaker, “the
oldest and the best” of the Esopus Chiefs, who gave deed to the English
government, April 27, 1677, for all the lands between the mouth of the
Esopus (now Saugerties) Creek and the mouth of the Groot Esopus
(now Rondout) Creek, as defined in general terms, thence west to the
Blue Hills, including the sites of the forts called Kahanesing, and Shaw-

THE ABORIGINAL PEOPLE.

angunk, which they admitted in previous treaty with the Dutch (1664)
to have been “conquered” by the “sword” — a belt of country running
from the Hudson west to the Rochester hills. The precise district which
each of the families named occupied cannot now be ascertained, if they
were ever known to the Dutch or to the English authorities. It is only
known that their forts or palisaded villages were amid the mountains on
the west, that their fields included the Esopus Valley, and to a certain
point the Wallkill Valley, that their war dances were held on the Dans
Kamer, and their blazing brands waved over the most fertile fields of
our now Ulster County. No doubt their territory was much larger, as
represented by other families in the combination, but the particular
territory which the families named, owned and occupied, and which
they admitted to have been “conquered by the sword,” was the Esopus
Valley. Whatever strength the Esopus combination had outside of the
families immediately interested as owners was made up of recruits from
kindred families, particularly the Minnisinks on the Delaware, and from
the Wappingers on the east side of the Hudson. The Katskill Indians on
the north were Mohicans in alliance with the Dutch at Fort Orange and
hence neutrals — the Tappans on the south were their intercessors, the
grantors of the New Paltz lands were classed as Esopus Indians, the
grantors of lands up to the south line of the Katskills were classed as
Esopus Indians. The only break in the chain is in Dongan’s purchase, in
1684, 11*001 the Murderers’ Creek Indians who certainly were not on the
Esopus watershed.

While it may be conceded that the aborigines on Hudson’s River
or some of them, may have seen European ships and Europeans sent to
American waters for trade during the hundred years that preceded Hud-
son’s explorations, we know certainly that they visited Hudson’s ship at
several points where he anchored, particularly in what is now known as
Newburgh Bay, in part primarily in the original limits of Ulster, on the
evening of September 14th, 1609, on his upward course, and again on
the 29th of September on his return, and that “the people of the moun-
tains” visited his ship. Of certain date also is it that a Dutch trading
vessel was at Kingston Point in 1613, and that Dutch traders left there
some boats in 1621-22. While other nationalities may have had part in
the early trade, it is clear that the Dutch traders conducted traffic along
the river, and particularly at the mouths of creeks which were the path-

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

ways of aboriginal commerce, and on which Indian families lived.
Kingston Point obviously became a permanent trading post contempor-
aneously with that at Manhattan and at Tawalsontha, our present New
York and Albany. From that point, or perhaps more particularly from
the cove on the south side of the point, which the Dutch called
Punthoekje, meaning “Point of a small hook,” now corrupted to Ponk-
hockie, radiates the aboriginal history of Ulster County.

No trouble with the aboriginal owners of the trading posts is of record,
nor is any manuscript prior to the advent of a colony of settlers who came
down from the Manor of Rensselaerswyck in 1652, under the lead of
Thomas Chambers, an Englishman by birth, and began permanent occupa-
tion, presumably by consent or by purchase of farms. No doubt whatever
can there be that the traders of the previous years had made the aborigines
familiar with intoxicants, nor that they had through that medium fully
inaugurated the work of their demoralization, when Chambers and Kit
Davids, and their comrades pitched their tents on the Groot Esopus
“about a league west of the Hudson,” and one Jacob Andrieson located
at the Strand now Rondout. Although the Dutch authorities had for-
bidden the sale of brandy and other liquors to the aborigines, Chambers
reported to Director Stuyvesant, May 28, 1658, that “great trouble”
had occurred at the Strand “through the fearful intoxication of the bar-
barians.” They had obtained “an anker of brandy” (about five gallons),
and, lying under a tree at the tennis-court, had, in their “madness,” fired
at and killed one “Harmen Jacopsen, who was standing on the yacht of
William Maer, and during the night had set fire to the house of Jacob
Andrieson, so that the people were compelled to fly.” The cause of the
outbreak was no doubt correctly stated by Chambers — “fearful intoxi-
cation” — men crazed by the “strong water” which the settlers or the
traders had supplied, or as one sachem said in an interview with Director
Stuyvesant, “they sold the boison that is brandy, to his people,” and
were consequently responsible for the result. The trouble did not end
here. Under the same influence the Red Men became quarrelsome and
compelled the settlers, under threats of arson, to plough their lands for
them, killed some hogs and a horse or two that seemed to have strayed
on their plantations, and used “great violence every day” in the estimation
of their white neighbors.

On appeal to Director Stuyvesant for assistance he went up from Man-

John B. Alliger.

THE ABORIGINAL PEOPLE.

hattan to the scene of disturbance, and, after looking over the ground,
told the settlers that the time was not favorable for engaging in war on
account of the murder of Jacopsen and “the burning of two small
houses”; that the alternative of war had better be “deferred to a better
time and chance”; that the first business of the settlers should be to
gather their scattered dwellings in one place and enclose them in palis-
ades. Reluctantly the settlers consented, and the Director marked out
for them the site of a village on the north part of the Groot Plat, to
which he gave the name of Wildwijk, now the oldest part of the City of
Kingston. The Red Men were not altogether pleased, and complained
that the land which had been taken had not been paid for. Stuyvesant
talked with them and accused them of many breaches of good neighbor-
hood, and the sachems finally came forward and gave him the land “to
grease his feet with, because he had made such a long journey to come
and see them.” So it was that Wildwijk marked the first aggressive step
for the occupation of the fertile fields of the Groot Plat by the Red Men
called Atkarkarton by some translators and Atharhacton by Dr. E. H.
Convin. ij_4.61.30

On the 15th October following Stuyvesant held another conference
with the sachems of Esopus at Wildwijk, with a view to ascertain what
they were willing to do in regard to the land which he wanted. He
restated to the sachems the complaints which had been made to him
against them “or their tribe,” and asserted that “the land from the
Esopus” as far as he had viewed it, was demanded “for the expenses
and troubles incurred” by him in visiting the settlement. The doctrine
of indemnity was new to the sachems, and they withdrew for consulta-
tion. On the 1 6th they returned and submitted to the Director the
counter-proposition that they would “desist from their claims for pay-
ment as to one half of the land.” The conference closed without definite
result beyond an exchange of prisoners, but on the 28th the sachems
visited Jacob Jansen Stoll, an early settler, whose name is frequently met
in the narrative, who reported to Stuyvesant that “the Esopus sachems
or right owners” of the “certain piece of land, namely the large tract”
which the Director coveted, they proposed to give to him (Stoll) one
half “in recompense” for any wrong that they had done. “Then,” wrote
Stoll, “we went, three of us, to the land, and, on the 20th had them show
us how much and which part they intended to keep for themselves”;

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

that “there were some plantations, but of little value” ; that it was “a
matter of one or two pieces of cloth, then they (the owners) would sur-
render the whole piece and remove.” The parties who had visited the
land were Jacob Jansen Stoll, Thomas Chambers and Derick Smith,
Ensign, the latter the commander of the Dutch guard. No payment in
cloth was made, but arrangements were considered for forcing the
owners to give up possession, and for the employ of “some allied savages”
on Long Island to assist in the subjugation of “the rightful owners.”
Matters drifted along v/ith more or less friction until the 29th of
September, 1659, when a party of eight (not eighteen) “Esopus Sav-
ages” who “had broken off corn for Thomas Chambers,” were “at dark,”
given some brandy by him. They went with it “to a place at no great
distance from the fort,” i. e., where the guard was stationed, and sat
down and “drank there until about midnight.” When the supply of
brandy became exhausted they “began to yell, being drunk.” One of
the number went for more brandy, and obtained it from a soldier. Asked
where he drank the brandy, they replied “close by, near the little Kil,’’
presumed to have been the small stream known later as the Twaalfs Kil.
The debauch continued. In the midst of it Ensign Smith, the command-
ant of the guard, sent out a company of eight men with a view to suppress
the boisterousness and “get the savages into the fort.” The sergeant in
command of the company sent back one of his men who reported “that a
crowd of savages was there.” Jacob Jansen Stoll came to the Ensign
saying, “I will go, give me four or five men.” “He thereupon took,”
says the narrative, “four or five men, namely Jacob Jansen van Stouten-
burgh, Thomas Higgens, Gisbert Philips, Evert Pells, Jan Artsen and
Berent Hermsen,” who with himself (Stoll) constituted a force of seven
men who are all classed as “inhabitants” in the record. Certain “soldiers”
are named as having “all been with the sergeant and Jacob Jansen
Stoll,” namely, Martin Hof man, Gillis de Necker, Abel Dircksen, Dirck
Hendricksen, Michael Vreegh (Perch), and Jooris Metser. The “crazed
savages” were fired upon ; the fire was returned ; one Indian was killed ;
Jacob Jansen Stoll was wounded; the Indians ran away with the excep-
tion of one who was found asleep near the fire, and was awakened by “a
cut into the head with a sword or hanger,” when he “jumped up and ran
away,” and the posse “ran back to the fort,” which seems to have been
the guard-house in the northeast corner of the palisaded village.

THE ABORIGINAL PEOPLE.

The attack upon the “drunken savages” was cowardly and unpro-
voked.* Retaliation followed quickly. The account of what followed is a
little confused in the dates, one writer giving the occurrence of the attack
on the Indians as on the night of September 20th, and the capture of a
company of Dutch as occurring on the afternoon of the same day, and
another writer giving the date as the 21st, which is probably correct.
Whatever the precise fact, the substance of the narrative is that the
Indians immediately set on fire Stoll’s grain-stacks and barn, and com-
mitted other devastations. “Jacob Jansen Stoll and Thomas Chambers
went to the strand and hired a yacht to go up the river to make their
report. Returning to the fort the party numbered thirteen “the sergeant,
Andries Laurens, with five men, Thomas Chambers, Jacob Jansen Stoll
(Jacob Hal), a carpenter Abraham by name, Pieter Dircks and his man,
Evert Pells’ boy, and Lewis the Frenchman,” who, “at the tennis court
near the Strand” supposed to be at about the site of the present City
Hall, “allowed themselves to be taken prisoners. Thomas Chambers was
exchanged for a savage, one soldier escaped during the night and ten
are still in captivity.” What became of them ? Schoonmaker writes that
they were compelled to “run the gauntlet and that those who survived
the ordeal were burned alive.” Sergeant Laurens, one of the number,
sent a letter by one of the Indians, apparently written three or four
days later, in which he wrote: “I am a prisoner with nine men. Jacob
Jansen is dead with three others.” Another writer says: “Thomas

Chambers is free again; five have been cut in the head; one has been
shot dead; the sergeant is still living with two others.” The Jacob
Jansen spoken of was Jacob Jansen Stoll, not Jacob Jansen Stoutcn-
burgh, as has been stated by a local writer. Stoutenburgh was living and
in service in 1663, while Stoll was certainly dead pricer to January 25th,
1661, as appears by an affidavit quoted in a subsequent page. The only
prisoner who is known to have escaped was the son of Evert Pells, who
was saved from death by an Indian maiden, in accordance with the
Indian custom so frequently quoted in the rescue of Captain John Smith
by Pocahontas. Pells and the maiden were married, and later he refused
to be exchanged. We shall meet him again.

The occurrences narrated inaugurated the Esopus War of 1659-60.

* The question of the responsibility for the attack upon the Indians gave rise to a heated
discussion. The narrative places it on Stoll, but Ensign Smith was certainly guilty of permitting
Stoll to go out with his posse of “burghers” for whose acts he became responsible.

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

*The savages besieged and surrounded the place during twenty-three
days; fired with brand-arrows one dwelling house and four grain
stacks”; killed and wounded a number of the settlers and took others
prisoners as already quoted. The record narrative of the events of the
period is complete in Colonial History, Volume XHI, which is available
to every one who may be interested. The student especially should not
be guided by any other relation.

Peace was concluded July 15th, 1660. By its terms the Esopus sachems
“promised to convey as indemnification all the territory of the Esopus,
and to remove to a distance from there, without ever returning again to
plant.” In other words, they promised to give up the Groot Plat which
Director Stuyvesant wanted, and which the settlers hoped to obtain with-
out paying for it. On that Plat a settlement was soon commenced which
was called the Nieuw Dorp, or New Village, about three miles west of
Wildwijk, or the Old Village. The sachems protested. They “were
willing to allow the erection of dwellings,” but would have no fortifica-
tions made, and claimed positively “that the second large piece of land was
not included in the treaty of peace made with them in the year 1660,”
and they would not, therefore, allow it to be plowed, sowed, planted or
pastured, “before they were paid for it,” with many threats to burn and
destroy what had been done. The two large pieces of land spoken of
in the narrative are supposed to have been east of and at what is now
known as Old Hurley. They were obviously clear, open river bottoms
or meadows.

The storm broke on the settlements on the morning of the yth of June,
1663. The “barbarians” as they were called, attacked the New Village
when the male settlers were at work in the fields, “burned twelve dwelling
houses, murdered' eighteen persons (men, women and children), and
carried away as prisoners ten persons more.” “The New Village has
been burned to the ground,” continues the narrative, “and its occupants
are mostly taken prisoners or killed, only a few of them have come
safely to this place,” i. e., to Wildwijk. The disaster did not stop here.
The attacking “barbarians” had planned the destruction of both villages,
had penetrated the Old Village ostensibly for trading and at a given
signal struck down inhabitants and set dwellings on fire. Eighteen set-
tlers were killed, eight wounded, and twenty-six made prisoners. Total
destruction by fire was averted by a change in the wind, and by the

THE ABORIGINAL PEOPLE.

rallying of men who were in the fields by whom the invaders were driven
out. Within its palisades and around its ruined homes the settlers
gathered when night came on and kept mournful watch.

Now began the Esopus War of 1663. Martin Kregier was placed in
command of the Dutch forces, and with the aid of sixty-five Marsapequa
Indians from Long Island,' carried sword and cannon into the heart of
the Esopus country, burned the Indian villages in the more immediate
vicinity of Wildwijk, crossed the hills and destroyed the Indian palisaded
towns of Kerhanksen and Shawangunk, killed a large number, and
destroyed wigwams and plantations. Peace came May 15, 1664. In the
Council Chamber at Fort Amsterdam Esopus sachems and sachems of
friendly tribes assented to the terms which Stuyvesant proposed. All the
land which had been previously given to the Dutch in compensation of
damages, as well as that over which the Dutch forces had passed
and possessed themselves of “as far as the two captured forts,” was sur-
rendered to the Dutch as having “been conquered by the sword.” Of
the beautiful Esopus valley was left to them permission to plant around
their former forts for one year. Amid the many fertile fields of the
Blue Hills many of them found new homes, while others remained on
adjacent lands that had not been surrendered.

With the advent of the English Government in 1665, a different policy
than that which had been pursued under Director Stuyvesant was inau-
gurated. On the yth of October of that year a new treaty of peace and
friendship was made -with the Esopus sachems. The lands which the
Dutch had conquered by the sword remained in the possession of the
English, but the sting of conquest was removed from it by the
payment for it of forty blankets, twenty pounds of powder, twenty
knives, six kettles, and twelve bars of lead. Whatever criticism may be
made on the action of Director Stuyvesant in the manner of obtaining, it
remains a fact that ultimately all the lands in Ulster County were paid
for, and no title is handed down to-day tainted by unjust primary
acquisition. For several years, or until 1674, when the Court of Sessions
of Ulster County was given charge, the treaty of 1665 was renewed
annually at Fort Amsterdam (New York). In 1732, the original manu-

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

script and the treaty belt by which it was accompanied in 1665, were
passed over to the Court of Sessions and are now carefully preserved
in the office of the Clerk of Ulster County. The treaty belt is the oldest
treaty belt that has been preserved in any part of this broad land — a belt,
the touch of which awakens in the thoughtful a narrative of untold ages,
a romance of history of more interest than any which has been written
by man or woman. With the deepest interest we trace the footprints
of the perished race, mindful ever that they are marked by barbaric
excesses, but nevertheless a race of many virtues, its enemies being judges.

Crushed and broken by the war of 1663, and by later conflict with
the Senecas, as allies of the Minquas, we hear little more of the ‘‘Esopus
Indians.” As rapidly as they could they sold their unconquered lands
and fell back to the East Branch of the Delaware where they were
known as the Papagoncks, while others became incorporated with the
Minnisinks, whose battle cries as Monseys were heard in the Great
West. Except in stone implements and in spear and arrow points, many
of which were thrown away when they became possessed of fire arms,
no trace of them remains other than in records written by their enemies
of an opposing civilization and in the singularly quaint but expressive
geographical names which have come down to us badly mangled in
orthography in the course of their transmission. While not remarkable
in significance — while only an approximation to the sounds of the names
as originally spoken — there is that about them that attracts and invites
study and preservation as the only names that are strictly American.
Esopus, Waronawanka, Atkarkarton, Kahankson, Shawangunk, Mo«»
gonck, Magaat, Ramis, will remain with us indelibly blended with the
history of our own race — indelibly sharing the geographical terms of a
Dutch ancestry — as a priceless inheritance.

Eugene R. Durkee.

PIONEER SETTLEMENTS AND PATENTS.

CHAPTER III.

PIONEER SETTLEMENTS AND PATENTS.

PIONEER history is eminently a history of individuals, the periods
of their immigration, their privations, sacrifices, and accomplish-
ments, and the results following their footsteps. In the aboriginal
history of the county we have been introduced to the conditions under
which early settlement was made, and to many of the pioneers, who
located on the banks of the Groot Esopus, and have learned something of
their baptism of blood. It seems to be clear from official records that
the resident settlement dates from 1652, when Thomas Chambers came
down from Troy, presumably accompanied by servants, obtained lands
from the Indians and located his “Bowerie’’ on the north side of the
Groot Esopus about three miles — the record says ‘‘about one league^’ —
inland from the Hudson.* He was of English birth, and came to this
country as a farmer under the first Patroon of Rensselaerswyck and had
a farm where the City of Troy now stands. He was young, unmarried,
and ambitions, and presumably his removal to the Esopus country was
under the charter of “Freedoms and Exemptions” of 1640, which gave
to certain classes of immigrants the rank of “master colonists,” and the
privilege of holding for ten years without tax two hundred acres of
land, which was about the extent of his first holding. He was soon
joined in his new home by Mattys Hendricks, to whom there is no patent
record, and by Johan de Hulter (1604), who made purchase from the
Indians of five hundred morgens (a little over one thousand acres) of
land adjoining Christopher Davidson, on the south side of the Groot
Esopus. Christopher Davids (Davidson), who had first located at Rens-

* The deed to Thomas Oiambers bears date June 5th, 1652, and recites the conveyance to him
by “Kawachhikan and Sowappekat, aboriginees of this country living in the Esopus, situated on
the North river,” empowered by other Indians whose names are given in the deed, “Certain
parcels of land situated in the Esopus above named, extending southwest and northeast, named
Machslapacick, Naranmapeth, Wiwisowachkick, with a path from the said lands to the river.”
The sale was confirmed by one “Anckrup, an Indian, called then in this Bill of Sale Kawachij-
kan” (Kawachhikan). Anckrup was still living in 1722, when he gave testimony of the Paltz
Patent boundmark. He was then “a very old man,” certainly.

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

selaerswyck, was granted in 1656 a patent for about seventy acres on the
south side of the Groot Esopus “opposite the farm of Thomas Chambers” ;
by Jurian van Westphalen, who was in the same neighborhood in 1657; by
Evert Pels van Steltyn, who sailed a yacht but was a brewer by occupation,
and had lived at the Mill Creek, Greenbush, and by Jacob Jansen Hap,
otherwise known as Jacob Jansen Stol, who had been ferry master at
Beaverswyck, and who had purchased from Christopher Davids his
farm, sold by Davids in August, 1657, in consequence of the death of
his wife.* The man of wealth among the pioneers was Johan de Hulter.
His father was at one time a director in the West India Company, while
he himself was the holder of one-fifth share of the common stock of the
Killian Van Rensselaer Company, which came to him from his wife,
Johanna de Laet, daughter of Captain Johannes de Laet, whose explor-
ations of the Hudson in 1625 are historic. Dying in 1657, he is not par-
ticularly known in Esopus history beyond his purchase and later resi-
dence, and the experiences and residence of his wife, who later became
the wife of Johannes Ebbinck, a Shepen of Manhattan and a man of sub-
stantial character. Previous to her marriage with Ebbinck she had estal>
lished by proof in 1659, that her husband had purchased five hundred
morgens of land, November 5th, 1654, and asked and was granted
a patent for it. The official record in this and in the patents of Christopher
Davids, and Jacob Jansen Stoll, supply evidence of the first location of
the permanent settlement as distinguished from a trading post. There
w’ere two contemporary residents in the vicinity of “the landing,” pre-
sumably Ponkhockie as now written. They were Jacob Andrieson and
Andries van der Sluys, whose dwellings were burned by the Indians in
1658. To the enumeration must be added Cornelius Barentse Slecht, an
immigrant of 1655. Others names which appear in 1658 are Peter
Dircksen, Jan Broersen and Jan Jansen.

In response to an appeal for help in the trouble with the Indians in
1658, Director Stuyvesant visited the settlement May 28th, of that year,
and in reply to his advice the colonists agreed to concentrate their dwell-
ings at one place and enclose it with palisades. The consent was signed
by Jacob Jansen Stoll, Thomas Chambers, Cornelius Barentsen Slecht,

•.Stoll was a leading spirit in the colony. In his notes of his visit to the Esopus in 1658,
Director Stuyvesant wrote: “Jacob Jansen Stoll’s house, which is the nearest to most of the
habitations and plantations of the savages, where we had appointed to meet the Sachems, and
where on Sundays and the other usual feasts the Scriptures are read.”

PIONEER SETTLEMENTS AND PATENTS.

William Jansen, Pieter Dircksen, Jan Jansen, Jan Braersen, Dirck Hend-
rickson Graaf, and Jan Lootman. Stuyvesant marked out a site for en-
closure by palisades of about two hundred feet square, and gave to the
inchoate village the name of Wildwijk, “Wild retreat” or refuge, now
anglicised to Wiltwyck, and for additional protection directed the con-
struction of a Rondhout, substantially a palisaded Redout at Ponkhockie.
Soldiers who had accompanied Stuyvesant aided the settlers in the work
of removing their log houses and in palisading the village, and within its
limits were gathered under the first assignment of lots the dwellings of
sixteen families, viz: Lot No. i, Thomas Chambers; 2 Evert Pels; 3
Balthasar Laser; 4 The Dominie’s House (or lot for it, it had not been
built) ; 5 Mrs. Johanna de Hulter*; 6 Jacob Hap’s little bowery (printed
Jacob Grovier by Schoonmaker) ; 7 Jacob Hap’s second bowery (printed
Jacob Jansen by Schoonmaker and otherwise as Jacob Jansen Stoll) ;
8 Henry Zewant Ryger (printed Hendrick Sewan Stringer by Schoon-
maker) ; 9 Andries, the weaver; 10 Jan, the Brabanter; ii Jan Brou-
wersen (Broersen) ; 12 Michael the first; 13 Michael Verre; 14 Jan,
the smith (printed Jan Depuit by Schoonmaker) ; 15 Andries van der
Sluys, precentor and schoolmaster (printed Annetje Vandersluys by
Schoonmaker) ; 16 House and lot of Ger (printed “Gertwig” by Schoon-
maker). No assignment was made for a church; there vv^as none; what
religious services there Vv^ere were at the house of Jacob Jansen .Stoll ;
the “Dominie’s House” after it was built, was the church and the public
building. Some of the residents were given the name of their occupa-
tion— “Jan the Smith,” was probably a blacksmith; “Henry Sewant
Ryger,” was a stringer of Sewan, the Indian shell money, which had
more value when strung on cord — “strings of wampum,” they were
called. “J^^> Branabter” should perhaps read Jan Janse Van Oster-
h©udt,” who was sometimes called Brabanter.” (Schoonmaker.)

Director Stuyvesant soon learned that he had not made the enclosure
of the village sufficiently large, and on the 5th of May, 1661, went up to
Esopus and marked out an additional number of lots, the receivers of
which were required to enclose “with good, stout and dutiable palisades”
the full breadth on the outside. The addition was over double the size of
the first enclosure, thirty-one lots being numbered and assigned: No. i
Hendrick Jochemsen (Hendrick, the smith); 2 Hendrick Mastersen; 3

• “Johannes Ebbinck, and his wife, the widow of Honorable Johan de Hulter.” April i6, 1660.

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

Harmen Hendricksen (Harmanus Hendrix Bleu) ; 4 Jan Jansen Tim-
merman (Jan Jansen, carpenter); 5 Jacob Barentsen (Slecht); 6 Jan
de Backer (Jan, the baker, otherwise entered “Jan Lootman, the
baker at the Esopus) ; 7 Jan Joosten (Jacob Joosten) ; 8 Willem
Jansen (William Pauli) ; 9 Pieter van Alen; 10 Mattys Roelofifsen; ii
Jacob Boerhans (Burhans) ; 12 Gerrit van Campen; 13 Anthony Cruepel
(Crispel) ; 4 Albert Gerretsen (wheelwright) ; 15 Meerten Gysbert

(Dr. Gysbertsen van Imborch) ; 16 Dirck Adriaen (Floriaen) ; 17
Mattys Capito; 18 Jan Lammersen; 19 Carsten de Noorman (Caster
the Norman) ; 20 Barent Garretson (Brandy distiller) ; 21 The Church
Yard (i. e. Burial ground as shown by the proceedings of the Commis-
sioners) ; 22 Jan Barensen; 23 Not assigned (Schoonmaker wrote “the
Church.” It may have been the lot on which the first church stood later,
but the evidence is not clear) ; 24 Albert Hymansen Roosa ; 25 Jurian
Westval; 26 Nicholas William Stuyvesant; 27 Albert Gysbertsen
(Gysberts) ; 28 Tejerick Classen (de Witt) ; 29 Aert Jacobsen (Peter) ;
30 Jan Schoon (Jan R.) ; 31 Aert Pietersen Tack (Evert Petersen).
“Jan Schoon” may stand for Jochem Schoonmaker, who had been
appointed Lieutenant under Captain Thomas Chambers.* Quite a village
had Wildwijk become in 1663. It had a minister, physician, a skilled
midwife, a precentor or schoolmaster, a smith, a weaver, a wheelwright
and thrifty farmers.

Pending the development of the village other immigrants had pushed

* Some of the names are uncertain. In May, 1662, Jan Thomassen and Volckart Jansen leased
No. 4 to Gerrit Toocke, or Tocken, and Jan Gerritsen, the latter identified by “from Olden-
burgh.” One Jan Jansen’s may have been Jacob Jansen van Stoutenberg, who was a subscriber
in 1661 to the minister’s salary. Schoonmaker may have been at the Rondhout. Judge Clearwater,
in his introduction to “Anjou’s American Records,” writes: “A novice always experieifces difii-
culty in tracing the ancestry of Dutch families in examining documents signed by Dutchmen, and
in following the proceedings of Dutch Courts in America, arising from the fact that while the
French invariably used their surnames, the Dutch as a rule were indifferent about this, and
usually are designated by their Christian names even in important legal documents, and proceed-
ings. This answered every purpose in primitive and small communities where every one was
known, but now leads to much confusion. For instance, Lambert Huyberts always is Lambert
Huyberts Brink; Tirick Classen is Tjrick Classen de Witt; Jan Wilhelsen is Jan Wilhelsera
Houghtaling; Jan Mattys is Jan Mattys Jansen; Teunis Jacobse or Jacobsen is Tounis Jacobsen
Klaarwater (Clearwater); Peter Cornellis is Peter Cornellis Lowe; Aibertse Heymans is Albertse
Heymans Roosa; Hendrick Jochemsen is Hendrick Jochemsen Schoonmaker; Aert Jacobsen is
Aaert Jacobsen Van Wagonen.” Frequently all of these names appear in 'Ulster records, but
where there are several apparently of the same name other identification is necessary in tracing
genealogies. Identification by occupation was very frequent, and in many cases the occupation
became the surname, and so of the name of the place from which the immigrant came, of which
the instances arc not infrequent.

PIONEER SETTLEMENTS AND PATENTS.

on further west and founded a Nieuw Dorp, (New Village) prin-
cipally under the lead of Louis du Bois, a Huguenot, and his brother-in-
law Matthew Blanshan. Presumably there were residents roundabout
the two centres of settlement — unmarried farmers, laborers, and servants,
soldiers at the Rondhout, etc. In the distribution of house lots in
Wildwijk only heads of families were provided for. The New Village
was not palisaded.

Looking in upon the old Village of Wildwijk on Thursday June yth,
1663, “between the hours of eleven and twelve in the morning,” we see
Indians entering through all the gates of the palisades, dividing and scat-
tering themselves among the houses and dwellings in a friendly way with
a little corn to sell, just as they had done on many previous occasions.
The men of the village, or most of them, were abroad or at work in the
fields, the women busy in their household duties, the children playing
around their homes. A “short quarter of an hour” passed when a horse-
man rushed in through the Mill Gate crying out, “The Indians have de-
stroyed the New Village !” An Indian fires a gun ; it is a signal to his
confederates. Forthwith men are struck down with axes and toma-
hawks, and shot with guns and pistols, women and children in some
number killed and others carried away captive, and houses plundered
and set on fire, the peaceful homes of the morning converted to scenes
of carnage and death and terror. At this point the narrative tells us the
wind changed to the west and the firing of guns alarmed some of those
who were working in the fields. “Near the Millgate were Albert Gysbert-
son with two servants, and Tejerck Classen de Witt; at the Sheriff’s,
himself, and two carpenters, two clerks and one thresher; at Cornelius
Barentsen Sleight’s, himself and his son; at the Dominie’s, himself, and
two carpenters and one laboring man ; at the guard-house a few soldiers ;
at the gate towards the river, Hendrick Jochemsen, and Jacob the Brewer,
but Jochemsen was very severely wounded in his house by two shots at
an early hour. By these men, most of whom had neither guns nor side
arms, were the Indians chased and put to flight.* * After these few
men had been collected, by degrees others arrived from the fields, and
we found ourselves, when mustered in the evening, including those who
had escaped from the Nieuw Dorp and taken refuge among us, in number
sixty-nine effective men.” Add to this number fifteen men who had
been killed, two who had been mortally wounded and could not be classed

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

as effective, two who had been taken prisoners, and the total number
of male settlers in the Esopus villages was less than one hundred men.
Further than the narrative shows their names cannot be given — perhaps
there were some at the Redout at the landing — perhaps some were from
home. The narrative is signed by Roelof Swartwout, Sheriff, Albert
Gysbertsen, Tjerck Classen de Witt, Thomas Chambers, Gysbert van
Imbroch, Christian Nyssen and Hendrick Jochemsen, who composed the
Court at Wildwijk, the names of some of whom have already been given.

Passing from the description of the attack to its results the official
report shows that at Wildwijk nine men, three soldiers, four women, and
two children, had been killed; four women and five children taken
prisoners, and twelve houses and barns burned, viz : Garent Gerretsen,
killed in front of his house ; Jan Alberts, killed in his house ; Lechen
Dirreck, killed on the farm; William Jansen Seba, killed opposite his
door; Willem Jansen Hap, killed in Peter van Hall’s house; Jan the
smith, killed in his house; Hendrick Jansen Looman, killed on his farm;
Thomas Chambers’ negro, killed on the farm; Hey Olferts, killed in
the gunner’s house; Hendrick Martensen (soldier) killed on the farm;
Dominicus (soldier), killed in Jan Alberts’ house; Christian Andriesen
(soldier), killed on the street; Lichten Dirrack’s wife, burnt, behind
Barent Garritsen’s house ; Mattys Capito’s wife, killed and burned in
the house; Jan Albertsen’s wife, big with child, killed in front of her
house; Pieter van Hall’s wife, shot and burned in her house; Jan
Alberts’ little girl, murdered with her mother; Willem Hap’s child
burned alive in the house. Prisoners taken : Master Gysbert’s wife ;

Hester Douwe (blind Hester); Sara, daughter of Hester Douwe;
Grietje, Dominie Laer’s wife; Femmetje, sister of Hilletje, recently mar-
ried to Joost Ariaens; Tjerck Classen de Witt’s oldest daughter;
Dominie Laer’s * child ; Ariaen Gerretsen’s daughter ; two little boys
of Mattys Roeloffsen. Houses burned of Michael Frer, Willem Hap,
Mattys Roeloffsen, Albert Gerretson, Lichten Derrick, Hans Carolusen,
Pieter van Hael, Jacob Boerhans (two), Barent Gerretsen (two), Mattys
Roloffsen. Wounded in Wildwijk: Thomas Chambers, shot in the
woods; Hendrick Frere, shot in front of his house (died of his wound) ;
Albert Gerretsen, shot in front of his house; Andries Barents, shot in

* Adriaen van Laer and servant emigrated from Amsterdam in the ship Gilded Otter, May.
1658. He married later. He was a Lutheran minister who happened to be at Wildwijk.

ADAM MDIDTJACEM,

1831 - 1904.

PIONEER SETTLEMENTS AND PATENTS.

front of his house; Jan du Parck, shot in the house of Aert Pietersen
Tack; Hendrick, the Herr Director-general’s servant; Paulus Noorman,
shot in the street. Killed in the Nieuw Dorp: Marten Harmensen, found
dead and stript behind his wagon; Jacques Tyssen, found dead beside
Parent’s house; Derrick Ariaeson, shot on his horse. Taken prisoners:
Jan Gerritsen on Volckert’s bouwery; wife and three children of Louis
du Bois ; two children of Matthew Blanchan ; wife and child of Antoni
Crispel; wife and four children of Marten Harmensen; wife and three
children of Lambert Huybertsen; wife and two children of Jan Joosten ;
wife and child of Parent Harmensen; wife and three children of Grietje
Westercamp ; wife and child of Jan Barents ; two children of Michael
Frere; child of Hendrick Jochems; child of Hendrick Martensen; two
children of Albert Heymans. The Nieuw Dorp was entirely destroyed
except, says the report, “a new uncovered barn, one rick and a little
stack of reed.” *

A dark day in Esopus was that Thursday, June 7th, 1663 — that day
of terror, of murder, of fire, which has few equals in pioneer history—
that day on which names were written in imperishable record. Among the
actors in the scenes which have been referred to was the interesting
Dutch Minister Flermanus Bloom who wrote to his Classis, “We have
escaped, with most of the inhabitants,” and in his description of the scene :
“There lay the burnt and slaughtered bodies, together with those who
were wounded by bullets and axes. The last agonies and the moans and
lamentations of many were dreadful to hear. The houses were converted
into heaps of stones, so that I may say with Micah, We are made desolate.”

Dominie Bloom wrote that twenty-four persons had been killed, and
forty-five taken prisoners. (Letter of Sept. 13, 1663.)

The surrender of the Province of New Netherlands to the English in
September, 1664, brought with it no immediate material change in the
settlement of the Esopus country, the most material being in the manner

* Schoonmaker in his “History of Kingston” v/rote: “All the captives were returned except
Barent Slecht’s daughter. She had married a young warrior and remained with him.” Her name
is not in the list of prisoners of June 7th; she may have been captured in 1658-9. The story of
her marriage is given as traditional. It is of record that a son of Evart Pels was taken prisoner
in 1658-9, and was condemned to death, but saved from execution by an Indian maiden, that he
married her and refused to return to his Dutch friends. The record may be found in Colonial
History, N. Y., Vol. XIII, p. 143. The story of Slecht’s daughter may be true.

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

of obtaining title to real estate, the change of the name of Wildwijk
village to Kingston, that of the Nieuw Dorp to Hurley, and the laying
out of a new village under the name of Marbletown, primarily for the
purpose of assigning lands to the disbanded soldiers at the Rondhout
with a view to induce them to become permanent residents. The manner
in which titles to land had been obtained by the pioneers under the Dutch
administration was by individual purchases from the Indians, in some
cases by gifts from them, sometimes from grant by the local court, in the
village, by assignment. Under the new or English rule all titles by what-
ever authority, were required to be surrendered to the Governor and new
titles obtained from him, and purchases from the Indians, except by
license was forbidden. No previous title was held to be invalid, but legal
order was introduced. By the renewal in 1665 of the treaty of peace with
the Esopus Indians, Deputy Governor Richard Nicolls, the English suc-
cessor of Director-general Stuyvesant, found himself in possession of
the large district of country which the Indians admitted to have been
“conquered by the sword,” but for which they were compensated later,
and wrote: “The lands which I intend shall be first planted are those

upon the west side of Hudson’s River, at or adjoining to the Sopes,
which is ready now to put the plow into, being clear ground.” Under
the Governor’s encouragement and the reputation which the Esopus
lands had acquired for fertility, immigrants began to come in a large
number compared with the then total volume of immigration. Pre-
sumably the titles of the early settlers were returned to the Governor
and renewed and new patents granted, though no doubt the largest
proportion of immigrants became tenants, or made purchases from propri-
etors. In Colonial History, and in the record of land papers at Albany are
the following entries :

1656 — Sept. 25 — Patent issued by Director Stuyvesant to Christoffel Davids for
a tract of thirty-six morgens of land (about seventy-five acres) “situate about a
league inland from the North River, opposite to the land of Thomas Chambers,
running west and northeast half way to a small pond on the border of a valley
which divides this parcel and the land of Johan de Hulter, deceased, with as much
hay land (meadow) as shall pro rata be allowed to the other bouweries.” *

1657- — March 27 — Patent issued by Director Stuyvesant to Johanna de Hulter,
widow of Johan de Hulter, for 500 morgens (about 1,200 acres) of land purchased
from the Indians, and for which her late husband had petitioned for a patent No-

* Christoffle Davids’ son, David, with his family, perished in the massacre at Schenectady in
1690. In records Davids is written “Kit Davitsen,” “Kit Davits,” etc. The correct spelling would
seem to be Christoffle Daavis.

PIONEER SETTLEMENTS AND PATENTS.

vember 5th, 1654, ‘‘contiguous to the land of Thomas Chambers and Christoff el
Davits, where the boundary is formed by a large Kil, and is divided at the north
from the land on which Jurian van Westphalen lives now (1653) by ^ small Kil.”

1661 — Jan. 25 — Jan ver Beek and Francis Pietersen (probably of Fort Orange)
made declaration that they were present “in the spring of 1654, when Evert Pels
and the late Jacob Jansen Stoll divided the land bought by them together from the
Indians at the Esopus.” Stoll purchased Christopher Davids tract in 1657, but
seems to have been contemporary with him and with Evert Pels and Chambers,
De Hulter and Juriaen van Westphalen.

1663 — April 25 — Deed from Director Stuyvesant to Hendrick Cornelissen from
Holstein, for a “piece of land at the Esopus,” bounded “on the east by the Kil, on
the west and south by the meadow lying under the village.” Also a smaii parcel
of land adjoining.”

1664 — June 18 — Deed of confirmation from Governor Nicolls to Matthew
Blanchan for a house and lot of ground lying and being at Wildwyck.

1664 — June 23 — Deed of confirmation from Governor Nicolls to Roeloffe Swart-
wout for land in Wildwyck.

1664 — July 23 — Deed of confirmation from Governor Nicolls to Cornelijs Barents
Slecht for between forty and fifty acres of land at Esopus.*

1669- -April 9 — Tjerck Claus de Witt and William Montania represented to the
Commissioners that the Governor had given to them a grant for the setting up of
a sawmill about five miles north of Kingston, and asked that the commissioners
would recommend the further grant by the Governor of a piece of land about one
mile further north called Dead Men’s Bones, containing about seventy acres. At
the same session John Oosterhout, Jan Burhans and Cornelius Vernoy, “husband-
men” of Kingston, asked for “a certain neck of land five miles distant from Kings-
ton, over the Kill near the footpath leading to Albany, containing about fifty-four
acres clear and good land. De Witt, Montania and the other parties named obliged
themselves to build their houses all together on the other side of the Kill due north
from the land of Thomas Chambers, and intended the same for a township within
the precinct of Kingston. In the same neighborhood Thomas Chambers desired
to build a house for a tenant, and also one for his son-in-law. The commissioners
passed the recommendation as requested. The mill was erected and the settlement
formed at what is now the bridge over the Plattekill between the towns of Sauger-
ties and Ulster, writes Mr. Brink in his “History of Saugerties.” The place called
“Dead Men’s Bones,” was about a mile further north, but why so called awaits
satisfactory explanation.

1670 — April 13 — Deed from Governor Lovelace to Christopher Bersford for a lot
and a half in the new town laid out at Esopus called Marbletown.

1670 — Aug. 18 — Deed from Governor Lovelace to Richard Cage for a house lot
in Marbletown.

1671 — Oct. II — Deed of confirmation from Governor Lovelace to John Joesten
for a lot of ground in Marbletown, containing 30 acres.

* “Deed of confirmation” shows that the party receiving it had previously received title from
Director Stuyvesant or other authority. Matthew Blanchan, for example, was an immigrant of
1660. Cornelis Barentsen Slecht was given the land in his confirmatory deed named from
Stuyvesant in 1662. He described it in 1663 as “lying near the new village”; that he had found
it “too far for his convenience” as himself and his wife were “now old people” and “would
prefer living near the church,” the more so as his wife was “the midwife of the village of Wild-
wij'k.” He asked deed for land which he had “formerly purchased” from the Indians, and for
which he had been obliged to pay the tax to build the Minister’s house, a little piece of land
lying close to it, called in the savage tongue Wichquanis.”

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

i672~April I— Minute of a grant from the Court at Kingston to Cornelius
Hoogeboom of a lot of ground for a brickyard.

1672— June 25— Deed from Governor Lovelace to Tjerck Classen de Witt for a
parcel of bush land, together with a house lot, orchard and calves’ pasture lying
near Kingston, in Esopus.

1673— Feb. 18— Minute of a grant from the Court at Kingston to Jan Mattyson
of a lot of ground.

1673— April 14— Minute of a grant from the Court at Hurley of a lot of ground
to Albert Hymans. In minutes of the commissioners, Sept. 20, 1669, “Albert Hey-
mans (Roosa),” who asked permission to “set up a brew-house and tan-vats at
Hurley.” He was an immigrant of 1660.

1673 — June 7 — Deed of confirmation from Governor Lovelace to Matthias Blan-
chan for 36 acres of land in the town of Hurley.

1675- — March i — Minute of a grant from the Court at Marbletown to Jan Bigs
of a small piece of land.

1675 — March 9 — Minute of a grant from the Court at Kingston to George Hall,
of a small piece of land.

1675 — Sept. 10 — Minute of a grant from the Court at Hurley to Hyman Albert-
sen Roosa, of a small piece of land.

167s — Oct. 13 — Deed from Governor Andros confirming to Cornelius Hogeboom
the lot of ground granted him by the Corporation of Kingston for a brickyard
(See 1672, April i.)

1676 — April 15 — Minute of a grant by the Court at Kingston to William Tropha-
gen for 20 acres of land.

1676 — April 20 — Description of a survey of 40 acres of land lying at the Esopus,
laid out for Paulus Paulessen.

1676 — Aug. 4 — Description of survey of land belonging to Marbletown “called
ye third stuck” (piece) containing by estimation about 100 acres to be patented to
William Ashfordby. Deed from Andros Oct. 2, 1676.

1676 — Sept. 4— Description of a survey of 40 acres of land “at ye Mumbackers
lying at ye Round Doubt Kill,” laid out for Charrat Clausa. (Q. Tjerck Classen
de Witt.)

1676 — Sept. 4 — Description of survey of 40 acres of land “at ye Esopus lying at
ye Mombackers at ye Roundoubt River, laid out for Thomas Quicke.”

1676 — Sept. 4 — Description of survey of 32 acres of land “at ye Esopus, at ye
Mumbackers, lying by ye Roundout Kill, laid out for Aron ffranse.”

The three grants above named are the first of record in the present town
of Rochester. The name is from a Mascaron (Dutch Mumbackers)
painted on a tree by an Indian commemorative of himself — not of “a place
of death” or “a place of battle.” Trees and rocks so marked \yere fre-
quently met.

1676 — Sept. 5 — Minute of a grant from the Court at Kingston to Tjerck Classen
(de Witt), for a tract of wild land.

1676— Sept. 5— Minute of a grant from the Court of Kingston to Mattys Mat-
tison and Dirck Jansen Skipmouse of a piece of land “near that villaga”

1676 — Sept. 15 — Minute of a grant from the Corporation of Kingston “to (Captain
Chambers for a piece of land lying on the Great Kill.”

PIONEER SETTLEMENTS AND PATENTS.

Thomas Chambers located (1652-3) on the Groot Esopus. He secured
several parcels of land which were included in a manorial charter issued
to him by Governor Lovelace, Oct. i6th, 1672, under the title of the
“Lordship and Manor of Foxhall.” Although his manor was within the
bounds of Kingston, it had independent manorial powers and was so
recognized in the organization of the county in 1685, was given a
supervisor in the Board of Supervisors.

1676 — Sept. IS — Minute of a grant from the Court at Kingston to Wessel Ten
Broeck of a certain marsh containing ii acres.

1676 — Sept. 25 — Minute of a grant from the Court at Kingston to William Ash-
fordby, of 104 acres of land in Marbleton, situated behind the Kaelbergh (Bald
Hill), and called the fifth stuck, and 4 acres at the same place near a tract called
the sixth stuck. (See description of survey above. Aug. 4, 1676.)

1676 — Oct. I — Conveyance from Frederick Hussey to Claes Tunison of a lot o£
land of about so acres, in Marbletown.

1676 — Oct. 2 — Deed from Governor Andros to Anthony Addison for a certain
parcel of land above Marbletown in Esopus, lying over against the Kaelberg “called
by the name of Brookeboome Hook,” containing 20 acres.

1676 — Oct. 2 — Deed from Governor Andros to William Trophagen for a certain
piece of land at Esopus lying northeast from Captain Thomas Chambers’ farm, con-
taining about 10 acres, “lying north and south along the great creek or Kill to the
Water Kokh.” (Kolk, Dutch, “gulf, abyss.”)

1676 — Nov. 13 — Description of a survey of 20 acres of land being part of a tract
upon ye towne of Kingston, laid out by order of ye Magistrates of Esopus for
Wessel Ten Broeck.” (See 1676, April 15.)

1676 — Nov. 13 — Description of a survey of about seven acres of ffly “before ye
towne of Kingston at Esopus,” laid out for Mathas Matison and Derricke Jonson
Schapmos. (See 1676, Sept. 5.)

1676 — Nov. 15 — Description of a survey of eight acres of ffly lying before ye towns
of Kingston at Esopus, “laid out for ye troopers of Esopus.” (Granted on petition
of Jan Andriansen, Michael Mott and other troopers for the pasturage of their
horses.)

1676 — Nov. 13 — Description of a survey of 20 acres of lang being part of a tract
known as the Butterfield, lying to the southwest of Marbletown, laid out for George
Hall.

1676 — Nov. 13 — Description of a survey of 20 acres of land, being part of a tract
known as the Butterfield, lying to the southwest of Marbletown, laid out for Samuel
Leetee.

Same date — 22 acres of the Butterfield laid out for Thomas Kerton.

Same date — 28 acres of the Butterfield, laid out for John Kerton.

Governor Lovelace wrote the commissioners in 1669: “There is a tract
of land by ye Gale Berg which I purpose to improve for a breeding ground
which I wish you to survey and give me. It is called the Butterfield."

1676 — Dec. 28 — Description of a survey of an Island in Roundout River “called
by the Indians Assincke” (i. e. stony land or place), with 16 acres “near the
same,” laid out for Henry Bateman (Beekman) and Thomas Hendricks.

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

1677— April 25— Minutes of a grant from the Court at Kingston to Albert Geret-
sen of a tract of land on the opposite side of the Kill which runs through the
Esopus land.

Same date— Minute of a grant from the Court at Kingston to Joost Adriansen
for six acres over the Mill Kill.

1677 — May 26 — Deed from the Esopus Indians to Louis du Bois and associates,
of a tract of land over the Rondout Kill, “beginning at the high hill called Mog-
gonck, thence southeast to Juffrous Hook in the Long Reach, on the Great River
called in Indian Magaat Ramis, thence north along the river to the island called
Raphoes lying in Kromme Elebow, at the commencement of the Long Reach, thence
west to the High Hill at a place called Waracahaes and Tawaretaque, along the
High Hill southwest to Moggonck, with free access to the Rondout Kill.”

For this purchase a patent was granted by Governor Andros, Sept. 29th,
of the same year, on which was founded the settlement known as New
Paltz. The patentees were “Louis du Bois, Christian Doyou, Abraham
Hasbroucq, Andrie le Fevre, Jean Hasbroucq, Pierre Doyou, Louis
Bevier, Antonie Crespel, Abraham du Bois, Hugo Freer, Isaac du Bois
and Simon le Fevre, their heirs and others.” They were all French Hugue-
nots. The government of the patent was intrusted to the care of twelve
trustees known colloquially as “the Duzine,” who continued by succession
until the formation of the town. It was the first of the large patents issued
in the county, and covered, by later survey, 92,126 acres, on which are
now the towns of New Paltz, Lloyd and part of Esopus. Descendants
of the patentees now constitute a large quota of the inhabitants of Ulster,
Orange and Dutchess counties, and are widely scattered over the country.

1677 — June 9 — Draught of Roeloffe Hendrick’s patent at Esopus.

1677 — Sept. 24 — Petition of John Garton to build a house on his land in the
fourth stuck (Marbletown). Presumably the father of Thomas Garton, Judge of
Common Pleas of Ulster, 1692.

Same date — Anthony Addison, of Marbletown, asked for permission to “live over
the Kill” and for the grant of twenty acres of land.

1677 — Sept. 25 — Minute of a grant of land from the Court at Kingston to John
Rutgerson. He presented a deed from the Indians for the land.

1677 — Sept. 27 — Jan Borhans conveyed to Joost Andrianson his house and lot in
Kingston.

1677 — Oct. 8 — Deed from Governor Andros to Tjerck Claessen for a piece of
woodland containing about 50 acres, lying to the west of the town of Kingston.
Granted to Tjerck Claessen de Witt by the Court of Kingston, Sep. 4 of the same
year. See above.

1677 — no date — Petition of Henry Pawling for a grant of a piece of land “under
Hurley, joining to Wassmaker’s land,” being about 20 acres.

Wasmaker’s (Dutch) probably stands for Wax-chandler’s land. Gov-
ernor Stuyvesant had an interest in this tract. Ex-Governor Lovelace
asked the commissioners to treat “Mr. Stuyvesant with all the honor

NICHOLAS m. GRAHAM

PIONEER SETTLEMENTS AND PATENTS.

so that it prejudice not ye town.” The commissioners recommended
that *‘one moiety of the tract be granted to Mr. Petrus Stuyvesant pur-
suant to his Royal Highnesses’s directions.” Stuyvesant had a warm
place in the hearts of the Dutch colonists of Esopus.

1679— April II — Description of the bounds of a parcel of woodland lying on ye
south side of Kingston, and a small meadow lying and being by the Mill Creek, to
the west of a rocky hill, containing in all 16 acres, with a house in Kingston,
granted to William de Miere, otherwise written Wilhelmus DeMyer.

1680 — July 18 — Description of a survey of an island at the rocky point of the
Rondout Kill (See Dec. 28, 1676), about the quantity of six acres; also a parcel
of meadow land at the west side of Rondout Kill, containing about forty acres,
with a parcel of woodland, commonly called Pamahaky (slanting land) and Bart-
man’s Hoeke, containing about 100 acres, laid out for Michael Gorton.

1680 — Aug. 13 — Minute of a grant from the Court at Kingston to John and
William De Meyer and Matthias Mattison of about six acres of land under the
fall of the Platte Kill; also woodland as far as they have need to cut wood for
the sawmill.

1680 — Sept. 16 — Minute of a grant from the Court at Kingston to William D«
Meyer of a lot of land over the Mill Kill, south of Kingston, contain 16 acres,
with 3 acres of valley; also a house lot.

1680 — Nov. 2 — Certificate of the Corporation of Kingston to the effect that Wil-
liam De Meyer is the right owner of half of the mill and Kill called by the name
of Platte Kill, in company with Matias and John Mattison.

1683 — Minute of a grant from the Court at Kingston to Henry Alberts for a
parcel of woodland “by ye south side of ye great creek.”

1684 — Oct. 25 — Deed from the Indians to Governor Dongan for lands extending
along Hudson’s River to the lands belonging to the Murderer’s Creek Indians,
thence westward to the foot of the high hills called Pitkiskaker and Aioskawasting
(now known as the Shawangunk Mountains), thence southwest all along the said
hills and the river called Peakadasank (now Shawangunk Kill) to a water pond
lying upon said hills called Maretange, comprehending all those lands, meadows
and woods called Nescotack, Chawangon, Memorasink, Kakogh, Gitawanuck and
Ghittawagh.

This purchase w2ls included in a patent Sept. 12, 1694, to Captain John
Evans. The grant was set aside by the Colonial Assembly in 1698, ap-
proved by Queen Ann in 1709, and the immense tract thrown open for
settlement by small patents, the first one granted being that on which the
City of Newburgh now stands. For nearly one hundred years that por-
tion of the territory lying north of Murderer’s Creek, continued a part of
Ulster County, and many of the early patents adjoining or more immedi-
ately south of the New Paltz Patent, remain in that connection.

1685 — May 25 — Description of a survey of 200 acres of land lying upon the north
side of Esopus Kill or river, butting upon the land of Captain Thomas Chambers
and known by the name of Upton. Laid out for Edward Whittaker.

1685 — May 26 — Description of a survey of 672 acres of land lying upon both sides
of Rondout Kill including part of the Paltz River, and known by the name of
Hardick, laid out for William Fisher.

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

1685 — May 27 — Description of a survey of 830 acres of land, lying on both sides
of the Rondout Kill or river, and known by the name of Moggewarsinck, laid out
for Henry Beakman.

Beekman sold this patent to Peter Lowe, Nov. 2, 1708, who included it
in a grant to himself March 8, 1722, as appears by survey abstract, Land
Papers 89, 158. The limits of the new patent are described as within the
then town of Rochester, and as “beginning at the great fall called Honeck,
from thence up the creek northerly to the high mountains, including sev-
eral pieces of land** and also all the land that lies on Mombaccus Kill
within the bounds belonging to the Indians, i. e. not conveyed by the deed
of 1677, excepting 300 acres of land which had been granted to Warnear
Koornbeck. Moggewarsink, otherwise on record Moggew-assin-k, means
“At (on or to) a great rock,” and refers to the great rock lying in Ron-
dout Creek above its junction with the Sandberg.

1685— May 28 — Description of a survey of 963 acres of land lying upon the south
side of Rondout Kill, or river, and known by the name of Rosendale, laid out for
Jacob Rutsen.

1685 — May 29 — Description of a survey of 400 acres of land lying upon Rondout
Kill, and known by the name of Wawarasinke, laid out for Anne Beak.

On this patent was founded the old village of Wawarsing, and the
name of the boundmark became the name of the present town. The name
was from that of the southeast boundmark of the patent where Rondout
Kill bends abruptly to the north which it describes as a point, a stone
or corner “where the current bends, winds, or eddies around.” The pre-
cise point is a large stone lying on the bank of the stream which has been
identified by surveys of the patent.

1685 — June 6 — Description of a survey of a 160 acres of land “lying upon both
sides of the Mumbackehouse Kill or brook (now Rochester Creek), in the rear of
the land of Tjrk Claus de Witt, laid out for Tunis Jacobsen Klaarwater.

1685 — June 6 — Description of a survey for 290 acres upon the north side of
Mumbackhous Kill, laid out for Tjerck Claus de Witt.

1685 — June 6 — Description of a survey of 212 acres lying on the south side of
Rondout Kill, and known by the name of Mumbackhouse, laid out for Philip Coale.

1685 — June 8 — Description of a survey of 212 acres of land lying upon the south
side of Rondout Kill, and known by the name of Mumbackhous, laid out for
Leonard Coale.

1685 — June 8— Description of a survey of 344 acres upon the south side of Ron-
dout Kill, being known by the name of Mumbackhouse, laid out for Nicholas
Antonia.

1685 — ^June 8 — Description of 208 acres of land lying upon the south side of
Rondout Kill, and known by the name of Mumbackhouse, laid out for Claud Loeter.

1685 — June 8 — Description of a survey of 222 acres lying upon the north side
of Rondout Kill, and known by the name of Mumbackhouse, laid out for Garret
Daker.

Clarence T. Frame.

PIONEER SETTLEMENTS AND PATENTS.

1685 — June 9— Description of a survey of 176 acres lying on the north side ol
Rondout Kill, laid out for Peteer Cole.

1685 — ^June 9 — Description of a survey of 366 acres on the north side of Rondout
Kill, laid out for Peter Holebrand.

1685 — June 9 — Description of a survey of 100 acres of land lying on the north
side of Rondout Kill, laid out for Gisbert Alerts.

All the preceding tracts of land were in the district known as Mum-
backhouse (Mumbakers). The several orthographies are given as they
appear of record.

1685 — June 12 — Description of survey of 2900 acres of land lying upon Hudson’s
River betwixt the Rondout Kill and the Cline Esopus, and known by tne name of
Hussey’s Hill, including the Cline Esopus ffly and Sunken ffly at the mouth of
Rondout Kill with the two lakes. Laid out for Frederick Hussey and others.

1685 — June 16 — Description of a survey of 259 acres of land lying on the south
side of Esopus Kill, laid out in two parcels for Waldron Du Mont.

1685 — June 16 — Description of two pieces of land containing together 83 acres,
lying on the south side of Esopus Kill, together with a house and lot in Kingston,
bounded on the northeast by the house-lot of Wessel Tenbrooge, laid out for
Matice Matison.

1685 — June 17 — Description of a survey of 324 acres upon the north side of Ron-
dout Kill, and known by the name of Mumbackhouse, laid out for Roeliffe Hen-
drick Infelt.

1685 — June 17 — Description of a survey of 100 acres of land lying at Esopus,
being near and on the east side of Esopus Kill, and in the rear of the lands of
Captain Thomas Chambers and William Traphagen, laid out for Derricke Hen-
derson.

1685 — June 20 — Description of survey of 327 acres of land lying on the south
side of Esopus Kill or river bear the dividing line between Kingston and Hurley,
laid out for Tjerke Clause de Witt.

1685 — June 20 — Description of a survey of four acres of land lying by Kingston
to the northward of the Mill lot; also a house-lot in Kingston, laid out for Cor-
nelius Hogeboom.

1685 — July 7 — Description of a survey of 290 acres of land lying upon the north

side of Rondout Kill, and known by the name of Mumbackus, laid out for Leonard
Beckwith. --

1686 — April 4 — Description of a survey of 2000 acres of land lying upon both
sides of the Well’s River, in the town of New Pauls, beginning on the east side of
the river, and at the south end of a small island in the river at the mouth of the
river Chauwangung, laid out for James Graham.

This tract was at the junction of the Shawangunk and the Wallkill,
on the east side or slope of the ridge or hill called Nescotack.

1686— April 5 — Description of a tract of 83 acres on the north side of the Esopus
Kill, within the bounds of Hurley, and known by the name of the Old Bowery,
laid out for Garret Cornelius.

1686 — April 9 — Description of survey of a ffly or meadow ground upon the great
Binne water (inland water), lying to the northeast of Kingston, containing about
38 acres, laid out for Henry Clausort and Yochum Englebert Van Nauman.

1686 — April 10 — Description of a survey of 69 acres upon the south side of Esopus
Kill, laid out for John Hamell.

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

1686— April 12— Description of a survey of 19 acres within the limits of Hurley,
faid out for John Ewenson.

1686 — April 13 — Description of a survey of 200 acres upon the south side of
Esopus Kill, within the limits of Marbletown, laid out for John Post.

1686 — April 13 — Description of a survey of 158 acres of land upon the south side
of Esopus Kill, within the limits of Marbletown, laid out for Gisbert Cron.

1686 — April 13 — Description of two parcels of land on the south side of Esopus
Kill, one lying entirely in Marbletown and the other partly in Hurley, laid out for
Garrat Gisbertson.

1686 — April 15 — Description of a survey of a certain tract known as ’ Primaker's
Land,” lying upon the Esopus in the limits of Hurley, and some other lands in the
vicinity, containing 321 acres laid out for Venike Rosen.

Primaker or Pruemaker, from whom the land was named, was
the aged Indian sachem who was killed by the Dutch troops in the Esopus
war of 1660. “The oldest and best of the Esopus chiefs,’’ is his record.

1686 — April 20 — Description of 80 acres in Marbletown, upon the south side of
Esopus Kill, touching a hill called the Calibar (Kaleberg), laid out for William
Johnson.

1686 — April 23 — Description of 30 acres to the northeast of Maudlin ( ?) Island,
in Kingston, laid out for William Haines.

1686 — April 13 — Description of survey of two lots, in all about 130 acres on the
south side of Esopus Kill, in Marbletown, laid out for John Coke.

1686 — April 26 — Description of a survey of about 169 acres on the north side
of Esopus Creek, in Marbletown, laid out for Henrik Cornelius Bogart.

1686 — April 26 — Description of several tracts of land within the limits of Hurley
adjoining the Mother Kill on the west, laid out for Derick Skipmouse.

1686 — April 26 — Description of a tract “within the limits of Kingston, by the
Roundout Kill, known by ye name of ye Plain Fields, together with swamp land,
in all 144 acres,” laid out for Thomas Chambers.

1686 — April 29 — Description of three pieces of land, in all about 90 acres in Mar-
bletown, laid out for John Bigges.

1686 — April 29 — Description of eight acres in Kingston, also a house-lot lying
upon ye west street in Kingston, laid out for Jacob Aretson.

1686 — April 28 — Description of three acres in Kingston, “westward by ye Mill
Pond,” laid out for Jacobus Elmindorf.

1686 — May I — Survey of 47 acres on the north side of Esopus Kill, in Kingston,
together with an island called Pearl Island, containing about 21 acres, laid out for
William Legg.

1686 — May I — Survey of 600 acres lying upon Hudson’s River to the northward
of Callicoone Hooke (Turkey Hook), in Kingston, laid out for John Tyson.

1686 — May 3 — Survey of 87 acres in Kingston, upon ye north side of Esopus
Kil, and “fronts on ye Platte Kill,” laid out for Peter Winne.

1686 — May 4 — Description of survey of 201 acres about two miles south of
Kingston, laid out for Cornelius Sleght and Cornelius Hoghboom.

1686 — May 4 — Survey of 55 acres of swamp and “about seven acres of land in
ye valley, to the eastward of the southwest gate,” laid out for Jan Tyson.

1686— May 4 — Description of survey of 100 acres on the south side of Esopus
Kill, beginning at the falls, laid out for Arian Tunisson.

PIONEER SETTLEMENTS AND PATENTS.

1686 — May 4 — Survey of 25 acres lying at the Green Kill in the bounds of Hurley,
also six acres of upland by the Wagon Path on the south side of Esopus Creek,
laid out for Corns. Elmendorf.

1686 — May 4 — Description of survey of about 216 acres lying upon Esopus Kill,
within the bounds of Kingston, laid out for Henry Alburts.

1686 — May 4 — Survey of 27 acres on the east side of the Kline flfly, on the west
side of Kingston, together with a garden lot at Kingston, containing five acres, and
a piece of woodland on the south side of Esopus Creek, near Kingston, containing
25 acres, laid out for Girth Artson,

1686 — May 7 — Survey of about 442 acres at the mouth of Esopus Kill, being part
of the tract called “the Sagiers,” laid out for George Meales.

1686— May 7 — Description of survey of 252 acres lying about three miles west-
ward from the mouth of Esopus Kill, beginning at the side of a run called the
Beaver Kill, being part of the tract called Sagiers, laid out for George Meales,
and others.

1686 — May 8 — Survey of 300 acres lying northward from the mouth of Esopus
Creek, being part of the tract called Sagiers, laid out for George Meales and others.

Sagier was a pioneer of date prior to 1660. He obtained lands from
the Indians and is said to have built a small sawmill at the mouth of the
creek which still bears his name. The tradition is of doubtful value.
He did not perfect his title by patent, and the land reverted to the gov-
ernment. Zager (Dutch) means Sawyer, and Zagerij means Sawmill.
The latter is not met of record.

1686 — May 8 — Survey of 201 acres crossing the run called Sawyer’s Kill, about
a mile north of the mouth of Esopus Creek, being part of the tract called Sagiers,
laid out for George Meales and others.

1686 — May 14 — Description of a survey of 797 acres in the county of Ulster, in
the neighborhood of Wanton Island, laid out for himself by Ro. Fulerton, sur-
veyor.

Wanton Island (Lenape Wanquon), is now the northeast bound of
Ulster County. The Indian name means “Heel,” heel-shaped, pro-
tuberant.

1686 — May 28 — Survey of about 63 acres “being part of Hurley great piece” on
the north side of Esopus Kill, laid out for Matthew Blanjohon.

1686 — May 28 — Description of a house-lot in Kingston “on ye north side of the
Bridge Street,” together with another small lot “without Kingston by the Mill,”
laid out for Matice Slight,

1686 — May 28 — Survey of 47 acres “being part of Hurley great piece,” lying on
the north side of Esopus Kill; likewise a house-lot in Hurley, and two lots of
Hurley ffly or meadow ground, known as Nos. ii and 13, laid out for Rowliffe
Swartwood (Swartwout).

1687 — March 9 — Survey of a house-lot in Kingston, containing about ten acres,
laid out for Henry Denyke.

A survey implies title previously obtained from some authority or indi-
vidual— not record patents.

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

1686 — May 31 — Description of a survey of 64 acres on the north side of Esopu*
Creek within the limits of Marbletown, laid out for Thos. Van de Marke.

1686 — June 3 — Description of a house-lot in the Church Street, in Kingston, laid
out for Mart Hoffman.

Hoffman was a soldier in the war of 1663. He was the father of Zach-
ariah Hoffman of Shawangunk.

1686 — May 7 — Survey of sundry lots in Hurley, in all about 30 acres, laid out for
John Elta.

1686 — June 8 — Survey of 100 acres “lying on both sides of the Mother Kill, and
known by the name of Otford, being within the limits of Kingston,” laid out for
John Hall.

1686 — June 16 — Survey of 400 acres in Kingston, laid out for John Spragg.

1686 — Dec. 9 — Survey of two pieces of meadow or ffly, in all 89 acres, lying north
of Kingston, laid out by request of Wm, de Myre.

1687 — Jan. 20 — Description of a survey of 410 acres “known by the Indian name
of Chauwangung,” laid out for Thomas Lloyd.

This tract was at the settlement known later as Tuthiltown. The
survey was based on a prior grant. It was the specific tract or place
called Chawangon in the Indian deed to Governor Dongan in 1684, from
which the name was extended to the mountain, the stream, and the town.
All subsequent grants in the vicinity were located by it, as “at” or “near”
Skawongung. Severyn Tenhout, Beniamin Smedis, Jacobus Bruyn,
Matthias Mort, John McClean, located in the same vicinity. The tract was
on the north side of the abrupt bend in the stream and extended from the
bottom lands on the creek up the hill or ridge called Nescotack. The
name means “On the hill’s side.” It was never the name of the mountain
except by extension to it. Every place round about was called at or near
“Shawongunk,” or “ung,” after Lloyd’s settlement.

1687 — May 17 — Patent granted by Governor Dongan, approved by Council May
17th, 1688, to Dirick Shepmous, William de Meyer, Jacob Ruttsen, Wessell Ten-
brooge, Barrett Aertze, Tunis Jacobsen, Benjamin Provoost, Wm. Legge, Jacob
Aertson, Mattyze Mattise, Wm. Haines and John Wm. Plooghteen, “one body cor-
porate and politique to be called by the name of The Trustees of the Freeholders
and Commonality of the Town of Kingston,” and defining the bounds of their
jurisdiction, “beginning at the southward of Little Esopus Creek, thence west to
the bounds of the Town of Hurley, thence along the bounds of Hurley to a certain
creek called Motthar Creeke, thence northerly to another creek called Preenaker's
Creek; thence upon a north line three miles into the woods, thence on the same
course as the mountains range to the bounds of Albany County, and from thence
along the said bounds to Hudson’s River.” Under this charter the town was gov-
erned, from 1688 to 1816, by trustees elected annually.

1688 — July 30 — On representation of having purchased from the Indians by con-
sent, Governor Dongan issued patent to Joochim Staats for a tract of land “lying
and being above the village called Mombackus, extending from the land of Anna
Beake southwesterly,” etc., including the now most valuable portion of the valley
of Sandberg Kill in the present town of Wawarsing.

John D. Fratsher.

PIONEER SETTLEMENTS AND PATENTS.

1693 — May 10 — Draught of two pieces of land, in all 130 acres on the west side
of Esopus Creek, laid out for Hendrick Cornelius.

1695 — April 5 — Deed from two Indian women to the children of Nicholas An-
thony for land lying to the south of Rondout Kill.

1697 — May 27 — Joost van Metren asked for “a tract of stoney woodland in Mar-
bletown,” and Humphrey Davenport asked for land upon Mumbackhous Kill.

1697 — Oct. 14 — William West asked patent for a piece of land “on which he had
erected a come mill”; also the vacant land adjoining, the whole being bounded
south and east by lands of Col. Beekman, the Rondout Kill, and a direct line
over the hills to the bounds of Hurley.

1697 — Oct. 14 — Patent to Thomas Swartwout, Jacob Coddeback, Peter Gumaer,
Anthony Swartwout, Bernardus Swartwout, Jan Tys, and David Jamis, for lands
on the Neversink River known as Machagh-Kameck, Paenpach, etc., now in part
in Orange County, and in part in Sullivan County, primarily in Ulster and known
on the Tax roll of 1714 as the “Neighborhood of Wackemeck.”

1700 — April 10 — Indian deed to Engeltie, wife of Stephen Gasherie, lands on the
south side of Rondout Kill, at a small run of water, to the west of the land of
Rochsinck, called by the Indian name of Wiggewappog; thence along Rondout
Kill to a small run of water called by the Indian name of Warramick, together
with a certain fall named Sanchatisinck.

1701 — Dec. 10 — Survey of 710 acres of land, “at a place called Maschabeneer
Shawengonck, laid out for Matthias Mbtt, with affidavit by Jacob Rutsen con-
cerning its purchase from the Indians. Survey and affidavit filed with application
for a patent.

1701 — Sept. 22 — Petition of Matthias Mott for a patent of about 400 acres “at a
place called Shawangung,” which was given him by the Indians when he was a
child.

1702 — June 10 — Remonstrance by Sovereyn Tenhout against granting to Mat-
thias Mott the land which he had petitioned for, accompanied by an extract from
the minutes of the Court at Kingston showing that the land had been granted to
Tenhout in 1683. He asked for a patent for 300 acres (apparently additional)
“called by the Indians Masseecks” or Massecks, a name which describes low wet
lands, a marsh or meadow.

No date — John Smedes and James Greeyer asked for 300 acres “lying on the
south side of Nesquatalk, otherwise written Nescotack,” on both sides of the Paltz
River, for which a patent had been promised by Governor Bellmont.

No date — John Middagh “of Ulster County” asked for 300 acres on the south
side of Esopus Creek “commonly called or known by the Indian name of Aqua-
meeck,” which the name probably described as “a fishing place on the other side”
serving to locate the tract.

1702— March 12 — John Hardenbergh, “of ye County of Ulster,” asked license to
purchase 300 acres “called by the Indians Wenachsink, lying over ye Shawengonck
Kill on both sides of ye Wallkill.” The place was in Shawangunk, and the Indian
name described it as “at or on the fine, rich lands.”

1702 — March 12 — Albert Rosa, “of ye county of Ulster,” asked for a license to
purchase about 300 acres of land “called by the Indians Anguagekonk,” northward
of Kingston upon a certain creek called Sawkill, “westerly above Wm. Legg’s new
Sawmill, and near ye high mountains.”

1702 — March 12 — John Hardenbergh, “of ye county of Ulster” asked for license
to purchase from the Indians 250 acres on the Sawkill.

1702— April 18 — Robert Sanders asked for a patent for a tract of “200 J acres of
profitable land, besides waste land and woodland in Ulster County, at a place called

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

by the Indians Oghgotacton.” The patent seems to have been granted, but there
is no trace of its location.

1702 — Sept. 12 — Petition of William Nottingham, "an inhabitant of ye county of
Ulster,” for a piece of land "on ye second piece of ye towne of Marbletown.”
Granted July i, 1703.

1703 — May 8 — Petition of Claes Clase Sluyter for land on Rondout Kill contain-
ing 400 acres, "between ye land of widow Pawling and ye widow Dirck Kyser.”
Court at Kingston reported favorably.

1703 — June 16 — Petition of Captain Thomas Garton for and on behalf of ye
inhabitants of the town of Marbletown, praying for the appointment of Trustees
for said town and the issuing of letters patent.

This was the beginning of the organization of the town of Marble-
town. The patent was issued June 25, 1703, and Col. Henry Beekman,
Capt. Thomas Gaston (Garton) and Capt. Chas. Brodhead named as
Trustees, whose successors continued to be elected annually until 1808.

1703 — June 16 — Petition of Colonel Henry Beekman "for and on behalf of the
inhabitants of the town of Mumbackus,” praying the appointment of Trustees for
said town, and the issuing of letters patent.

The petition was granted June 25, 1703, and Colonel Henry Beekman,,
Joachim Schoonmaker and Moses de Puy named as the first trustees. The
early and familiar name Mumbackus was exchanges for Rochester, as a
compliment to the Earl of Rochester.

1703 — Nov. 4 — Petition of Arian Garretson and others in behalf of themselves
and the rest of the inhabitants of Hurley praying for a patent and the appointment
of trustees. Not acted on.

1704 — Aug. 28 — Patent to Philip French, Ebenezer Wilson and others, for lands
"Beginning at a place in Ulster County called the Hunting House or Yagh House,
lying to the northeast of land called Bashe’s Land, thence to run west by north until
it meets the Fishkill or main branch of Delaware River, thence to run southerly to
the south end of Great Minnisink Island, thence due south to the land lately
granted to John Bridges & Co.” i. e., to the Wawayanda Patent.

This was the Great Minnisink Patent covering lands now in Orange
County and as far south as Great Minnisink Island nine miles south of
Port Jervis, and as far north as about Mamakating, Sullivan (then
Ulster) County, near which the Hunting House stood. Its boundaries
were materially enlarged in 1764 under an order granting unoccupied
lands to parties who were willing to pay taxes thereon, the line being
extended north to Sandberg and east to Middletown, Orange County,
and the Minnisink angle formed. A considerable portion of southwestern
Ulster is still on this immense grant.

1704 — Oct. 24 — Petition of Cornelius Cool for and on behalf of the freeholders
and inhabitants of Hurley for survey of a tract "lying between the north bounds
of Kingston and the Great Mountains, commonly called the Blue Hills.”

PIONEER SETTLEMENTS AND PATENTS.

The ‘‘Blue Hills’’ referred to bound Esopus Valley on the west, spread
over Western Ulster and mingle with the Katskills on the north. Their
name is from the reflection of the color of the rocks. The survey asked
for was made and the tract described : “Bounded N. W. by the mountains,
N. E. and east by Kingston, S. E. and S. W. by New Paltz, and Marble-
town.”

1706 — July 16 — Petition of Johannes Hardenbergh and Company for permission
to purchase “a small tract of vacant land in the County of Ulster.”

1707 — March 22 — Indian Deed to Johannes Hardenbergh for a tract of land in
Ulster County “extending from the west bounds of MarHetown to a certain place
called Kawienesink (Kawanesmk), and northeast to a certain Kill called by the
Indians Anquathkonck, and southerly to the town of Marbletown.”

1708 — Feb. 4 — Petition of Johannes Hardenbergh and others for a patent for lands
“beginning at ye Sandberg or hill” at ye N. E. corner of ye lands of Ebenezer
Wilson & Co. (Minnisink Patent) thence northwesterly to ye Fish Kill River, and
west to the headwaters thereof, including the same, thence to a small river called
Cartwright’s Kill, and so by ye said Kill to ye northwesternmost bounds of Kingston,
on said Kill, thence by ye bounds of Kingston, Hurley, Marbletown and Rochester,
and other patented lands to the beginning.

This was the historic Hardenbergh Patent which covered northwest-
ern Ulster and mainly the County of Sullivan and part of Delaware.
The patent was granted in 1709.

1708 — Oct. 12 — Petition of Cornelius Cool and others of the town of Hurley, for
a patent for a tract of land adjoining the town of New Paltz, Report thereon by
Rip van Dam and other members of the Council recommending the issue of the
patent, with the saving clause admitting the rest of the town of Hurley to share
in its benefits.

The patent was issued Oct. 19, 1708. Its issue was to Cornelius Kool,
Adrien Garretsie, Matthew Ten Eyck, Jacob du Bois, Johannes Schepn
mose, Roeloff Swartwout, Cornelius Lammerse, Peter Petersies, Law-
rence Osterhout and Jannetie Newkirk, trustees of Hurley.

1708 — Nov. 2 — Deed from Hendricus (Henry) Beekman and Johanna his wife,
to Pieter Louw (Lowe) for a tract in Rochester, including several small pieces,
within the bounds belonging to the Indians, from the bounds of Kahansick to the
bounds of the High Mountains. The survey began at Honk Falls. The patent to
Lowe has been noted.

1709 — Aug. 18 — Petition of Alexander Griggs, of the County of Ulster, for 600
acres of land on the south side of Old Man’s Creek, and running up the Hudson’s
River to a point called the Old Man’s Hook, at a certain place called the Dans
Kamer.

The patent was the second granted on the resumed lands patented to
Capt. John Evans. The lands asked for were in the present Town of
Marlborough. Old Man’s Creek and Old Man’s Hook were so called
from Old Dennis Reljie, now Relyea, whose place of residence is de-

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

scribed in official papers at Albany. He was the first settler at Juff row’s
Hook. His name is on the tax roll of 1714.

1709 — Nov. I — Petition of Peter Barbarre for 2000 acres of the Evans Patent,
Now in Marlborough.

1709— Nov. 8— Description of a survey of 400 acres in Shawangunk on the south
side of the land of John van Camp, laid out for Evart Derwilighe (Terwilliger).

1709 — Nov. 12 — Description of survey of 200 acres of the Evans Patent lying on
Shawangunk Kill, laid out for Severeyn Tenhout. Described as woodland on
Shawangunk Kill, and Crum Kill.

1709 — Nov. 14 — Petition of Jacobus Bruin and Benjamin Smedes, of Shawangunk,
for 400 acres of the Evans Patent. Surveyor’s description: “Lying near a small

hill called in ye Indian tongue Wecbqu-atenn-onck,” meaning literally “at the end
of a hill.” Surveyed Nov. 15, 1709.

1709 — Nov. 18 — Petition of John McLean, of Shawangunk for 300 acres of the
Evans Patent, described in survey: “Lying on the northward side of the Paltz Kill
at Shawangunk.”

1709 — May II — Petition of Zacharias Hoffman of Shawangunk, for 330 acres of
the land formerly granted to Captain John Evans. Described in survey Dec. 2,
1709: “Lying on the east side of Shawangunk River.”

I709~Nov. 28 — Petition of Matthias Mott that the 300 acres of land which had
“been granted to Sovereign Tenhout be so divided that he (Mott) may have a
proportionate share of the good land upon said river, i. e, on Shawangunk Kill.

1709 — Nov. 28 — Petition of Hugo Frere and others, inhabitants of ye Paltz for “a
reasonable quantity of the resumed land formerly granted to Capt. John Evans. 1200
acres granted and surveyed May 3rd, 1714. Adjoining New Paltz.

1709 — May II — Petition of Peter Matthews and others for 2000 acres of the
Evans Patent, lying near the New Paltz, about twenty miles backward in the
woods from Hudson’s River, upon or near Paltz Creek.” A part of this tract was
owned by Jacobus Bruin in 1744, and described, “called the (jerbrande Vly, or the
Burned Meadows.” Burned over to clear it of bushes and coarse grass.

1709 — May II — Petition of Evart Derwillighe of Shawangunk, for 400 acres of
the Evans Patent.

1709 — Feb. 29 — Petition of Augustine Graham, surveyor, and Alex, Griggs, for
1200 acres of the Evans Patent, “at ye Old Man’s Creek,” now in Marlborough.

1709 — March 4 — Anne of Greatt Brittaine, France and Ireland, Queene defender
of the Ffaith, to William Peartree, Rip Van Dam, Adolph Phillipse, Geradus
Beekman, Plendrick Vernooye, Abraham Dilijoe, Teunis Jacobson Klaar water and
Jacob Klaarwater, grant by patent of a certaine parcell of land situate on the west
side of Hudson’s River, and beginning at the southeast corner of a small island
lying in the Paltz Creeke, and on the southwest side of the land granted to Capt.
Mathews and Company, and is in breadth on the Paltz River on a straight line one
hundred and eighty-six chains, and runs by the line of Capt. Peter Mathews and
Company two hundred and two chains west twenty-four degrees north and on the
south side of the said land at the termination of one hundred and eightysix chains
it runs west twenty-four degrees north two hundred and fifty-seven chains con-
taining four thousand acres,

1710— March 2— Petition of Peter Barbarie for 2000 acres of the Evans Patent,
“lying on the southeast side of Paltz Creek.”

1710 — March 7 — Petition of John Barbarie for 2000 acres of the Evans Patent,
“beginning on the west side of Hudson’s River at the south bounds of the Paltz

PIONEER SETTLEMENTS AND PATENTS. 63

Patent, running along the Hudson in a straight line southerly one hundred chains,”
southerly from Juffrouw’s Hook in Marlborough.

1710 — March 7 — Petition of Gerardus Beekman and others for 3000 acres of the
Evans Patent adjoining the lands of William Peartree and Company, in town of
Shawangunk.

1710 — March 24 — Petition of Obadiah Hunt and others for 2500 acres of the
Evans^ Patent, “beginning at a small brook called Tent Brook, and extends along
the said brook to the Paltz River, sixty chains on each side.” In Plattekill.

1710 — March 24 — Petition of John Thomas for 2500 acres of the Evans Patent.

1710 — March 24 — Petition of William Provost for 2500 acres of the Evans Patent.

1710 — March 24 — Petition of Dirck Benson for 1000 acres of the Evans Patent.

1710 — March 24 — Petition of Abraham de Peyster for 8000 acres of the Evans
Patent.

1711 — March 29 — Warrant for a patent to Mindert Scutt for 300 acres at Sawyer’s
Creek.

1712 — May 3 — Warrant to Wm. Bond for 600 acres of the Evans land “adjoining
John Barbarie’s on Hudson’s River.” In Marlborough.

1712 — May 30 — Petition of John McLean and Richard Winfield praying patents
for their lands in Ulster County, being part of the tract formerly granted to Capt.
John Evans. In Shawangunk.

The land at Guilford, “by the Indians called Nescotsck,’’ was known
for many years as “Guilford Church.'’ The actual location of the Indian
name is claimed for a village now known as Libertyville, which was long
known as Nescotack. The name describes a hill or ridge. The hill runs
north from Lloyd’s tract called Shawangunk.

1712 — June 6 — Petition of Hugo Frere and others for 2000 acres of the Evans
tract, “near adjoining td the Paltz River at a place called the Platte Kill, six miles
west of Hudson’s River, on both sides of the Platte Kill. Surveyed May 3, 1714,

1712 — June 25 — Petition of Jacob Ruttsen of Ulster County, for 2000 acres “near
the land of which he is already possessed,” i. e. near Guilford. Surveyed June
12, 1712.

1712 — June 5 — Petition of John Ruttsen and Jacob Bruin of Ulster County, on
behalf of themselves and Company, for 3000 acres of the Evans tract, “contiguous
to their improved lands.” Surveyed June 13, 1712. In Shawangunk.

1713 — June II — Petition of Solomon du Bois and Lewis du Bois, “of ye county of
Ulster” for 2000 acres of the Evans Patent near New Paltz.

1714 — Aug. 20 — Warrant to the Surveyor general to lay out for Lewis Morris
and others, 5000 acres of the Evans tract, “lying on both sides of Old Man’s Creek,
near Hudson’s River.” In Marlborough

1714 — Aug. 19 — Warrant of survey for 1500 acres of the Evans tract, granted to
Robert Milward, “pursuant to a grant from Governor Ingolsby.” On north side of
land of Francis Harrison & Co. Now in Marlborough.

1715 — May 30 — Grant of 300 acres to John Macklain, “lying on the north side of
Shawangunk Creek, bounded on the southwest by the land of Severejgne Tenhout,
south by the creek aforesaid, east by a small run which flows into Shawangunk
Creek, and northwest by land not yet laid out.

Here, at the lands not yet laid out, a region of many acres, the enum.er-
ation of patents may be suspended, and later grants remanded to the

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

history of the Towns in which they came to be included, a sufficient num-
ber having been quoted from which to trace the evolution of the county
and the persons by whom that evolution was wrought in the pioneer era
along the lines of the Groot Esopus, the Esopus and the Wallkill, and
from Wanton Island to the Dans Kamer on the Hudson, and from the
Dans Kamer west to the Blue Hills, and south to Pachanassink, where
Sam’s Point lifts its wall of rock. The enumeration is panoramic. As it
passes it presents the location of the homes of the pioneers, in some cases
the precise location of their dwellings, as well as chronologically the
flow of the tide of immigration. A more democratic policy than that
which was pursued in the early stages of settlement of apportioning
lands in homestead parcels to actual residents is not met in pioneer his-
tory. In some few cases the parties to whom the homestead grants
were issued did not remain in their occupation, death came to them from
exposures and privations and from the tomahawk and scalping knife,
but as a whole the homesteads became permanent and were cherished
for generations — homes and graves in the wilderness, what more de-
serving of monumental remembrance? Large patents, especially of later
eras, were taken up by non-residents, as well as by prosperous 'residents
for speculative purposes ; land was cheap ; a few shillings annual rent
gave many acres to be sold for a price. To the record of names given
in the early grants, others can be gathered from military rolls, road
lists, church records, etc., and as an incident of the ‘‘Leisler Rebellion.”
A list of residents of the country who subscribed to the oath of allegiance
to Prince William and Mary, in 1689, may be found in available docu-
mentary histories, most of the orthographies requiring expert reading.
The majority and a large majority, of the people of Ulster were un-
doubtedly favorably disposed to the success of the Prince of Orange
and when Leisler requested it, 190 promptly took the oath of allegiance ;
four refused to do so, and thirty absented themselves. Presumably the
list does not represent all the male inhabitants of the county, but the
general temper of the people was in that direction. A much more satis-
factory list of inhabitants is to be found in the original tax roll of the
county in 1715.

Zadoc P. Boice.

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EARLY FREEHOLDERS AND INHABITANTS. 65

CHAPTER IV.

EARLY FREEHOLDERS AND INHABITANTS.

The freeholders, inhabitants, residents and sojourners in County
of Ulster, theire Reale & Personal Estates are Rated as Assessed
by the Assessors (on their oath) chosen for the same on the
20th day of January 171 4/5, and are to-

the rate of one penny half Pr L, to discharge this

of said County’s quota, Layd by an Act of Assembly Intitled an Act for
Levying the sume of Ten thousand pounds, viz:

CORPORATION OF KINGSTON.

John Wood
Nicolaas Dermeyer
Jan Oosterhout
Howd Alberse Pleogh
Pieter Oosterhout
Hellena Burhans
Susana Legg
John Legg
Job’s Traphagen
Willen Traphagen
James Whittaker
Edward Whitaker
Jan Mattyson
Egbert Schoonmaker
Gurtray Schoonmaker
Evert Wynkoop
Collo Henrieus Beekman
Phillyp Hoogtylingh
Samuel Hooghtyling
Dina Hooghtyling, alias Fysen
Willem Hooghtylingh
Kesia Hooghtylingh
Jacomyntie Stynhout
Estate of Grelie Elmendorf, dec’d
Dirck Schepmoes
Teunis Ellisten
Gerritt Aartsen
Elizabeth Masten
House of M Anthony
Gysbert Vandenbergh
Jan f- Hecrmans
^ Evert Bogardus

Estate of Wyntie Bogardus, deced.
Major Joh’o Hardenbergh
^Petrus Bogardus
Anthony Slecht
Theunis Swart
Barent Van Wagenin
Phillyp Vielle
Dowd Nucella
Humphry Davenport
Ktyn Oosterhout
Nicholas Hof man
Hillegonda Van Slichtenhorst
Arien Van Vliet
Cornells Vernooy, Jun.

Mattys Pearce

es De Graaf

Baptista Du Mont

— hn Davenport
Bastian De Witt
Henrieus Heermans
Stephanus Gacherie
Willem Eltinge
Roelogg Eltinge
Keeper the Negro
Mattys Mattysen Jun.

Aardt Van Wagenin
Cornells Louis
Cornells De La Matter
Claas Schoonhoven
John Pearce
Jean Frere
rick Kip

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

CORPORATION OF KINGSTON. — Continued.

— enncke Lagransie
Tjirck Mattysen
Teunis Tappen
— ter Tappen
Thomas Van Steenbergen
Abraham De La Metter
— Hart Kiersteden
— thony Dilpha

Du Mont

— erand Du Mont
Mattys Mattisen, L. D.

Estate of Tjirck DeWitt, deced.

— Van Aken

mertie Winne

— ^n Cottin

h’s Tenbroeck

— col Tenbroeck
— arent Burhans
Major Job’s Wynkoop
Doctor Hans Kiersteden
A — metie Hoogenboom
Matthys Slecht

Dirck Vaick
Thomas Hoxon
Jan La Chaire
Samuel Bayard
Amerentic Hofman
Pieter — ambornnsel
Barent Nieuwkerk
Bruyn Bresser
Gusie Peer
John Viello

Barent Van Benthuisen
Annavan Vliet
Cornelis Swart
Moses Contain
Pieter Pielle
Hendrick Pruyn
Evert Bogardus
Hendrick Traphagen
Elsie Smedes
Ffredrick Clute
Mattys Jansen
Omie Lagransie
Jan Past
Pieter Dubois
Teunis Pier
Dowd Ffreeman
Mattys Dubois
Coenraate Elmendorf
Mattys Van Steenbergen
Major Dirck Wessellis

sen van Eagenin

Jacob Cool
Jan Pleogh
Willem Schepmoes
Jan Degraaf
Johannes Turck
— ^^arbara Wynkoop
— hanns Louw
— ^ndries Heermans

Crook

— hannis Burhans
Gysbert Pielle
— achel Bogardus
Christopher Tappen
Manuel Gunsalis Duck
Autie Van Bunschooten
Arien Neimskorck
Thomas Beekman
Hendrick Jansen
Jacobus Dubois
Arent Stynhout
Jno Rutsen
Thomas Pearce
Arien Hendrickse
Thomas Mattysen
Tobias Van Beuren
Allart Ariense Roosa
Evert Roosa

House of Wessel Tenbroecks heirs

Tjerck Dewitt

Nathaniel Davenport

William Harris

Ragel Pleogh

Geesie Winne

Henricus Beekman Jun.

Willem Burhans
John Fortune
John Chambers

Estate of Collo Wm. De Myer, deced.

John Pawling

Cornelis Lange Dyck

Benjamin De Mes

Jacob Loun

Ephraim Bogardus

Henekel Rou

Valentyn Bender

Henrich Beam

Kahaneman De Wever

Chrystofel Moul

Johan Klyn

Johan Willem Snyder

Hermanns De hoogduytser

Assessment. Tax.

L.9176, L. 57— 7— 0.

Total sume

EARLY FREEHOLDERS AND INHABITANTS. 67

MANNOR OF FOXHALL.

Assessment.

Collo Abraham Gaasbeen Chambers L.900

Capt Wessel Tenbroeck 330

Francis Salisbury 80

Pieter Ploegh 12

Total sume L1322

TOWN OF HURLEY.

Assessment.

Cornelius Lambertsen

L200

William West

140

Albert and Nicholas Roosa

175

Pieter Oostrander Sen.

Andries Bratt

Arma Vanetten

200

Marya Roosa

150

Mattys Ten Eyck

280

Arian Gerrittsen

655

Jan Roosa Sen.

125

Junne he Niewkerck

130

Roeloff Swartwout

170

Cornelly Cool

952

Charley Wilei

Jacob Dubois

260

Egbert Gerritsen

Huybert Suyland

Johannis Schepmoes

225

Jan Crespel

Willem Van Vredenburgh

Heirs of Griete DeHooges

Barnardus Swartwout

. 30

Assessment.

Pieter Oostrander Jun.

L20

Pieter Van Etten

children of Pieter Crispel

Dirck De Duytser

Jacobus Van Etten

Willem Roosa

Arien Roosa

Allart Janse Roosa

Gerritt Neiuekerk

Jacobus Elmendorf

Cornelius Wynkoop

Arent Oostrander

Jan Roosa Jun.

Jan Terwillige

Jacobus Terwillige

Lo wrens Cortreght

Lambert Cool

L4398

Tax.

L 5—12—6
2— 2—3
00 — 10 — o
00 — I — 6

08—05—3

Tax.

Li— 5— o
00 — 17 — 6

I — II — 10
00 — 10 — 17
00 — 2 — 10

I— 5— o
00 — 18 — o

I— 15— o

4 — I — 10
00—15— 7-^
00 — 16 — 3

I— I— 3

5— 19—00
00 — 6 — 3

I — 12 — 6
00 — I — 10
00 — 5 — 00

I — 8 — i-^
00 — 10 — 7-i-
00 — I — 10
00 — I — 00
00— 3— 9

Tax.

00 — 2—06
00 — 4 — 4-^
00— 5—00
00 — 5—00
00— 3— I
00— I— 3
00— 3— 9
00 — 3 — I-^
00 — 8 — 9
00— 4 — 4“^
00— 3— 9
00 — I — io->-
00 — I — 00
00— i— 3
00 — 00 — 7-^
00 — 00 — 7-t-
00— I— 3

27 9 d9

Total! Sume

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

TOWNE OF MARBLETOWNE.

Collo. Jacob Rutsen
Major Jacob Aartsen
Mattys Blanchan
Wm. Nottingham
Jno. Beatty

Jno. Joosten of Raretans
Cornells Eltinge
Mrs. N. Pawling
Gysbert Krom
Richard Brodhead
Peter Van Luven
Engeltie Mourits
Pieter Mourits
Heirs to Jno. Bigges
Cornelis Flack
Joris Middagh
Widow Keetell
Huybcrt Lambertse
Thomas Vandermarke
Charles Broadhead
Nicolaas Sluyter
Hendrick Clasen
Thomas Cock
Catherine Ashfordbie
Thomas Carton
John Cock
Jannetje Davies
Cornelia Ennis
Jeremiah Keetell
Hendrick Boss
Claas Keator
Arie Vandermarke
Jacob Vandermarke
Frederick Vandermarke
Augustinno Vandermarke
Thomas Jansen
Jacob Keyser
Jan Van Campen Sen.
Nicolaas Dapuis
Gysbert Roosa
Hendrick Bogart
Jno. Brigges
Cornelis Keyser
Jacobus Boss
Johannis Cool
Nicholas Blanchan
Jannetie De Witt
James Robinsone
Johannis Van Luven
Lambert Dolderbrinck
Marten Bogart
Henricus Krom
Roeloft Dolderbrinck
Henry Pawling

Assessment.

Tax.

1020

6— 7— 0

290

1—16 — 3

310

I— 18— 9

140

00 — 17 — 0

00— 7 — 6

00—13— 9

160

I — 00 — 00

200

I— 5—00

150

00 — 18 — ■ 9

ISS

00 — 19 — 4

100

00 — 12 — 6

00 — 10 — 00

00— 3— l-ir-

00 — II — 10

00 00 7^2

I2S

00— IS— 7-^

00 — 00 — I

00 — 8 — 9

00 — 7 — 6

185

I— 3— i-^

00 — 00 — 3

00 — 00 — I-'

00 — 8 —

00 — 4 — 4-^

390

2 — 8— 9

125

00—15— 7-X-

00— 3— i-i-

00 — I — 4

00 — i — 10

00 — 00 — 44-

00 — I — lO-L

00 — 2 — 6

00 — I — lo-i-

00 — 00 — 7-I-

00 — 00 — 7-^

00— 5— 2-^

00 — 00 — 7-^

140

00 — 17 — 6

00—13— 9

00— 3— 9

380

2 — 7 — 6

00 — I — 104-

00 — 00 — 0

00 — 00 — 7-I-

00— I— 3

00 — I — 9

190

I— 3— 9

OO— I— 00

00—00 — 7-*-

00 — 6 — 3

00 — I — 00

00—00 — 7-i-

00—00 — 74-

LL — I— io4-

EARLY FREEHOLDERS AND INHABITANTS. 69

TOWNE

OF MARBLETOWNE. — Continued.

Hartman Heyn

Assessment.

Tax.

00—00 — 7-J-

Jurian Best

00 — 00 — 7-i-

Johannis Tack

00 — 00 — 7-1-

Totall Slime

L5142

L22 s 2 d 9

Dirck Krom

TOWN OF ROCHESTER.

00 — I — lO-t-

Cornelis Vernooy Sen.

410

2— II— 3

Tennis Oosterhout

125

00—15— 7-1-

David Du bois

00 — 10 — 7-^

Geertruy Van Cortland

00— 5— 7-J-

Pieter Lambertsen

00—13— 9

Moses Dupuis

450

2—15— 3

Marynus Van Aken

00 — 7 — 6

Jochem Shoonmaker

285

I— 15— 7~^

Gerrit Decker

105

00 — 13 — I—

Gysert Van Garden

00— 3— 9

Jan Van Vliet

00 — I — lo-J-

Hendrick Jansen Cortrecht

00 — 6 lO-L-

Grietie Hoornbeck

00 — 3 — i^

Lodewyck Hoornbeck

00 — 10 — 00

Cornelis Switts

220

I — 7 — 6

Cornelis De Duyser

00— I — 10

Magdalena Rosenkrans

00—13— 9

Dirck Rosenkrans

130

00—16 — 3

Jacob De Witt

150

00 — 18 — 9

Simon Westphaalen

00 — 2 — 6

Harmanus Decker

00— 7— 6

Hendrick Rosenkrans

00 — 5 — 00

Jan Cort Recht

00 — 2 — 6

Cornelis Cortrecht

00 — 6 — 10

Jan Van Etten

00— 3— 9

Leendert Cool Sen.

150

00 — 18 — 9

Barent Harmense

00 — 00 — 4~^

Johannes Westbrocck

00 — 4 — 4”^

Pieter Louw

00 — 5 — 00

Dirck Westbroeck

00— 3— 9

Allexander Rosenkrance

00 — 7 — 6

Andries Van Luven

00— I — 10-^

Jurian Quick

120

00 — 15 — 00

Albert Van Garden

00 — 00 — 7-*“

Cornelius Schoonmakei

00— 3— 9

Harmanus Cool

00 — I — IO->“

Johannis Vernooy

00— 5 — 00

Jean Beveire

00 — I — 10

Abraham Beviere

00 — 2- — 6

Samuell Beviere

00— I— 3

Jacob Vernooy

00 — 6 — 10-^

Wm, Cool

00— I— 3

Johannis Hoornbeck

00 — 00 — 7-1-

Jacobus Wynkoop

00 — I— 10-^

Thomas Quick

00— I— 3

Willem Decker

00- "00 — 7-1-

Frederick Shoonmaker

00— I— 3

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

TOWN OF ROCHESTER.-

Jan Van Campen Jun.

Jan Gerntsen Decker Jun.

Cornelius Dupuis
Pieter Van Garden
Mattys Louw
Anthony Westbroeck
Cornelis Van Aken
Sara Rosenkrans

-Continued.

Assessment.

Tax.

00 — I — lO-A-
00— I— 3
00— I— 3
00—00— 7~^
00 — I — 7-^
00 — 00 — 7-l
00 — 00 — 7-f-
00 — I — lO-t-

' Totall Sume

3523

L22 00

TOWN OF NEW PALLES.

Abraham Doyo

L 55

Lio — s6 — dio-i

Christian Doyo

00 — 6 — 3

Peter Doyo

00— 4 — 4~^

Henry Doyo

00— 6— 3

Abraham Hasbrouck

230

I — 8 — 9

Louis Bevier

350

2— 3— 9

Jacob Hasbrouck

150

00 — 8— 9

Mary Du bois

165

I — 00 — 7-J-

Abraham Du bois

280

I— 15— 00

Arien Le fevre & Comp.

250

I— II— 3

Hugo Frere

00— II— 3

Abraham Frere

00— 3— i-i-

Jacob Frere

00 — 3 — i-J-

Elias Uim

00 — 4— 4-I-

Solomon Du Bois

100

00 — 12 — 6

Louis Du bois

00 — 10 — 00

Joseph Hasbrouck

00 — 4 — 4

Hendrick Van Weye

00— I— lO-L

Jacob Claarwater

00— I— 3

Jan Teerpenningh

00—00 — 7-^

Louis Bevier

00 — 2 — 6

Teunis Qaarwater Jun.

00 — 00 — 7-l

Hart Claarwater

00 — 00 — 7”^

Hendrik Jochense Schoonmaker

00— I— 3

Totall Sume

L2075

Li2 S19 d4-*-

PRECINCTS OF SHAWANGONCK.

Severyn Ten hout
Zacharias Hofman
Jacobus Bruyn
Benjamin Srnedes
John Macklaine
Richard Winfield
Jacob Decker Sen.

Abraham Schutt
Jacob Gerretsen Decker
Evert Terwillige
Leendert Coal Jun.

Collo. Peter Matthews & Comp.
Johannes Terwillige
Phillip Miller

L240

Li — sio — doo

130

00 — 16—

120

00— IS—

150

00 — 18 —

00 — 00 —

7-^

00 — 00 —

7-^

00 — I —

lO-J-

00 — 4 —

4-L-

00 — 6 —

00 — 7 —

00 — I—

00 — I —

lO-L

00 — 00 —

4-^

I — I —

L848

Ls s 6

Totall Sume

EARLY FREEHOLDERS AND INHABITANTS

NEIGHBORHOOD OF WACKEMECK.

Assessment.

Tax.

Thomas Swartwout

L25

Loo. .33. .di-^

Harmen Barentsen

00 — I — lO-*-

Jacob Coddeberg

00— I— 3

Peter Guymard

00 — 6 — 3

Jacobus Swartwout

00 — 00 — 7-»-

Totall Sume

L 105

Loo S13 d iY2

PRECINCT

OF THE HIGHLANDS.

Peter Magregory

L30

L 00 — S3 — d9

Swerver

00 — 00 — 74-

William Southerland

00— 5— 7-^

Michael Wygant

00 — I — lo-t-

Burger Myndertsen

00— I— 3

Jacob Weber

00 — I — 10-4-

Peter La Ross

00— I— 3

John fisher

00— I— 3

Andrew Volck

00 — I — 6

George Lockste .

00— I— 3

Pieter Jansen

00— I— 3

Henry Rennau

00 — 3 — 1-4-

William Elsworth’s widow

00 — 00 — 74-

Dennis Relj e

00 — 00 — 44-

Thomas Harris

00 — 00 — 44-

Capt. Bond

00 — I — 10-4-

Melgert the Joyner

00 — I — 104-

Christian Henneke

go — 00 — 144-

Jacob Decker Jun.

00 — 10 — 3

Cornelis Decker

00 — 00 — 7-^

L293

Assemt.

Li si6 d74-

Kingston

L9176

L7 — s7 — doo

foxhall

1322

8—5—3

Hurley

4398

27— 9

Marbletown

5142

32— 2— 9

Rochester

3523

22—00 — 44-

Showongonck

848

5—6—00

Wagachkemeck

105

0—13— T-*-

High-lands

293

I — 16 — 74-

Totall Sumc

L 26882 L168 00 3

Henr Beekman
Avidn Yornlaeti

(Signatures)

A. Gaasbeek Chambers
Egbert Schoonmaker
Cornelis Cool
Mattys Jansen

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

(Endorsed.)

“Kings tax —

1715-

Justices signed.

Peek de Witt L 25 )

) Assessors.

Jean frere L 25 )

Mattys Van Keuren ) Assessor.

Note — The Precinct of the Highlands then embraced the territory lying between
the mouth of Murderers’ Creek and the southeast line of the Paltz Patent, west to
the Precinct of Shawangunk. It covered the present towns of Newburgh, New
Windsor, Montgomery and Crawford in Orange County, and Marlborough and
Plattekill in Ulster.

CIVIL ORGANIZATIONS AND DIVISIONS.

CHAPTER V.

CIVIL ORGANIZATIONS AND DIVISIONS.

PRIMARILY the settlement in the Esopus country was without
local government other than that which was conferred by the
general laws and customs of Holland; it was simply a depend-
ency of Fort Orange (Albany). Brought to the special attention of
Director Stuyvesant by the difficulties with the Indians in what is known
as the war of 1660, and the enclosure of the village of Wildwijk, he
appointed (May 5th, 1661), what he called ‘'A small bench of Justices as
commissaries,” consisting of Evert Pels, Cornelius Barentsen Slecht and
Albert Heymse Roosa to '‘administer good care and justice” according
to the best of their knowledge; "prevent all mutiny, strife and disorder,
and assist in preventing them; "maintain and exercise the Reformed
Church service, and no other,” and "do everything which good and faith-
ful magistrates are bound to do.”* The directors of the West India Com-
pany, Department at Amsterdam, had recommended to him (April 15,
1660), the appointment of Roeloff Swartwout as Schout (Sheriff) at
Wildwijk, but Stuyvesant held that appointment in abeyance until May
nth, 1661, when by formal charter or patent he decreed that the "place
called Esopus” should be given a more extended municipal form of
government, by the addition of a Schout (Sheriff) who should with the
justices (Shepens) form a Board of Magistrates over which the Schout
should preside, to which was given the title of "The Court at Wildwijk,”
and which should hold its sessions at Wildwijk every fortnight — harvest
time excepted. The organization of the Court was completed May 23d
by the appointment of Roeloff Swartwout as Schout.* It was the third
of the similar charters issued in the Province — Fort Amsterdam
(New York) being first, and Fort Orange (Albany) second. At the
same time Stuyvesant appointed Thomas Chambers captain of the

* Cornelis Barentsen Slecht was an immigrant of i66i; Albert Heymes (or Heymanes) Roosa,
an immigrant of 1660, and Evert Pels of 1642. Roosa located first at Fort Orange, from whence
he lemoved to Esopus in 1634. He assumed the name of Roose (now Roosa). Swartwout came
from Holland for the second time in April, 1660.

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

militia; Hendrick Jochem Schoonmaker,* lieutenant, and Roeloff Swart-
wout, Hendrick Jansen, Cornelius Barentsen Slecht and Peter Jacobsen,
minor officers. Thereafter the village of Wildwijk and the Esopus
country became a dependency of Fort Amsterdam, and directly under the
charge of the Director-general. So far as is known the Board of Magis-
trates, and the militia organization were in full power under the charter
on June yth, 1663, when the settlements were surprised by the Indians.
The first meeting of the Board or Court was held July 12, 1661.

The civil government conferred by Director Stuyvesant continued
for only a few years ; substantially it was only the beginning. The Eng-
lish captured Fort Amsterdam Aug. 27th, 1664, and successively all the
principal towns were surrendered. No immediate change in civil gov-
ernment at Esopus followed, English laws not being introduced until
June 12, 1673. The Duke of York, into whose hands the Province had
fallen, deemed it wise to permit the Dutch settlements to grow into the
new order of things. Even under the Dutch had Wildwijk been asked to
send representatives to a convention at New Amsterdam. That was in
April, 1664, when Thomas Chambers and Dr. Gysbert Van Imbrocht
went there for the purpose of considering a proposition to send a delegate
to Holland to lay before the States General and the West India Company
the condition of affairs. The first change that came about was the ap-
pointment by the English Governor Nicolls, in 1665, of Daniel Brodhead
as Sheriff, vice Roeloff Swartwout, and the adding to the Sheriff’s
duties those of chief officer of the militia. Captain Chambers being con-
tinued in a subordinate relation. Swartwout was not a very superior
man. Brodhead was a captain in the regular service of England; his
effort to “boss” the Dutch at Esopus was not regarded with special
favor to say the least. He died at Esopus in 1669.

In September, 1669, after making personal inspection of affairs at
Esopus, Governor Lovelace, the successor of Governor Nicolls, directed
the dismissal of the garrison at Rondout, and the granting to the dis-
banded soldiers of lands on which to establish homes, and appointed
a commission, consisting of Ralph Whitfield as President, and Captain
John Manning, Captain Jaques Cortelyou, Captain Thomas Chambers,

* Schoonmaker was a native of Hamburg, Germany. He came to this country in the military
service of the W'est India Company, about 1654, and was stationed at Esopus with his company
in 1660, and settled there on the expiration of his term of enlistment. He died about 1681. Hia
descendants are still numerous in Ulster County, and are widely scattered over the country.

CIVIL ORGANIZATIONS AND DIVISIONS.

William Beeckman, Schout, Henry Pawling, and Christopher Berrisford,
to regulate affairs at Wildwijk, and Nieuw Dorp. The action of this
commission has been stated in part in connection with the change in the
name of Wildwijk to Kingston, and of Nieuw Dorp to Hurley, and the
organization of the new town of Marbletown. In addition, the commis-
sion abrogated the laws and customs of Holland, and proclaimed the
“Duke’s Laws” which had been promulgated at Hempstead, L. L, March
I, 1665, by Governor Nicolls. In general terms this code was very good,
and remained, with some amendments, as the laws of the Province of
New York until the rebellion of 1776, and the adoption of the State
Constitution of 1777. As the code required the placing of towns under
the care of commissioners, Christopher Beresford was appointed Chief
Magistrate of Hurley and Marbletown; Henry Pawling officer over
the Indians ; Louis du Bois and Albert Heymans, overseers of Hurley ;
John Biggs and Frederick Hussey, overseers of Marbletown, and Thomas
Chambers and William Beeckman overseers for Kingston. Justices of
the Peace appointed by the Governor and continuing during his pleasure,
and constables to execute public whippings, apprehend thieves and
drunken men, vagrants, Sabbath breakers, and other offenders, make up
assessment rolls for confirmation by the overseers, and do a great many
other things for the promotion of good order and good government
were introduced and continued after the inchoate towns had been organ-
ized under trustees. Beresford, who was appointed Chief Magistrate of
Plurley and Marbletown, was ranked by the commissioners as “above a
High Constable and short of a Justice of the Peace.”

The proceedings of the commissioners as stated of record are of no
little interest to students of the civil history of the county. Order was
brought out of the chaos which had grown out of the conditions under
which the settlements had been laboring ; a military system established ;
provision made for the opening and repair of roads, and English laws and.
customs introduced though not fully proclaimed until 1673. The Chief
Magistrates were required to give speedy decision in all cases coming
before them, “not regarding parties but ye merritt of ye cause” ; to see
that the overseers of the towns performed their duties ; to preserve the
peace as much as possible between individuals ; to remove all obstruc-
tions from trade or correspondence with the Indians, and permission
given to freely debate anything that might conduce to the advantage of

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

the public. The towns were given up to the newly constituted authorities
April nth, 1669.

Under '‘An Act to divide this Province into Shires and Countyes,”
passed by the Governor and his Council, November i, 1683, the County
of Ulster came into being in the terms of the act described, “the County
of Ulster to contayn the towns of Kingston, Hurley and Marbletowne,
Fox Hall and the New Paltz, and all the villages, neighborhoods, and
Christian habitacions on the west side of Hudson’s River from the
Murderers Creeke neare the high lands to the Sawyers Creeke.” There
may have been at that date (1683) settlements and habitations north of
New Paltz and west of Marbletown, but further than is shown in the
list of patents they are not of record. South of the south line of the New
Paltz patent the only one known of about that time was that of Captain
Patrick MacGregorie at the mouth of Murderers’ Creek. Substantially
the district was Ghittatawagh, the Great Wilderness.

The prior organization of the towns included in the county is suf-
ficiently stated in the list cf patents in a previous chapter. In 1684-5,
as has been stated. Governor Dongan purchased from the Indians the
lands lying south of the line of the New Paltz Patent, including the lands
of the Murderers’ Creek Indians and as far south as Haverstraw\ In
1694 the entire district was covered by patent granted by Governor Love-
lace to Captain John Evans. In 1698 the Assembly abrogated this grant,
but as the act required the approval of the Queen, which was not given
until 1709, the district was not opened for settlement at an earlier date.
On the approval of the act by the Queen came into being the settlement
at the mouth of Quassaick Creek, a few miles north of the mouth of
Murderers’ Creek, the south bound of the county, by a company of immi-
grants from the Palatinate of the Rhine, and the establishment by order of
the Court, of the Precinct of the Highlands, with territory extending
from Murderers’ Creek to the New Paltz line at Juffrouw’s Hook on t’ne
Hudson, and west to the Shawangunk range of hills, a dependency of
New Paltz to which it was attached for government. About the same
time, and by similar order the Precinct of Sharjeangunk was created and
attached to New Paltz. From the Precinct of the Highlands was evolved
the precincts of New Windsor, Newburgh, Marlborough, Hanover and
Wallkill now including the towns and cities of Newburgh, New Windsoi,
Crawford, Wallkill, Middletown, Marlborough and Plattekill, the two last

Jacob Rice,

CIVIL ORGANIZATIONS AND DIVISIONS.

named now in the county of Ulster, the others now in Orange, the whole
forming a group of settlements that gave honor in the sons to Ulster
County for nearly a century, and whose connection with the parent stem
in the colonial and revolutionary eras cannot be eliminated by boundary
lines or passing notice. As well eliminate the name of Washington of
Virginia from the history of the nation, as that of George Clinton of
New Windsor from the history of Ulster County.

The act of the Legislature passed April 3d, 1801, gave the bounds of
the county as south by the north bounds of the county of Orange, easterly
by the middle of Hudson’s River, west by the Delaware River at the most
southerly corner of lot number twenty-eight in the sub-division of great
lot number two in the Hardenbergh patent ; north, sixty-two degrees
east, to the southwesterly bounds of great lot number eight in said
patent, east to the north end of Schoon Lake (now in the town of Wood-
stock), continuing east along the northwest line of the town of Kingston
to Hudson’s River ; thence due east to the middle of said river, the land
limit now forming the northeast corner of the town of Saugerties. The
south line of the county has not been changed since 1798. The line —
the north line of Orange County — was very irregular from its bounds on
the north by the lines of certain patents. Very few know precisely its
point of beginning on Hudson’s River, and fewer still could possibly trace
it its entire length. The description of it in the act reads: “From a
point in the middle of Hudson’s River, opposite the northeast corner of a
tract of land granted to Francis Harrison and Company (now the north-
east corner of the town of Newburgh) ; thence westerly along the north
bounds of said tract and the north bounds of another tract granted to
the said Francis Harrison to the tract of land commonly called Wallace’s
tract, then along the same northerly and westerly to the northeasterly
bounds of a tract of land granted to Jacobus Kip, John Cruger and
others, then westerly along the northeasterly and northerly bounds there-
of to the northwest corner thereof, and then westerly to the northeast
corner of a tract granted to Rip van Dam and others, thence southerly
along the same to the northeast corner of a tract granted to Henry
Wileman, thence along the north bounds thereof to Paltz River, then
southerly up the said river to the southeast corner of a tract granted to
Gerardus Beekman and others, then westerly and northerly along the
southerly and westerly bounds thereof to the northeast corner thereof,

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

then northwesterly and westerly along the north bounds of the land
granted to Jeremiah Schuyler and Company to the Shawangunk Kill,
thence southerly along said Kill to the north part of the farm now or
late in the occupation of Joseph Wood, junior, thence west to the river
Mongaap.” Though now not easily traced, there is a volume of
local history along that old boundary line. By the erection of Sullivan
County in 1809, the Mongaap River is now the boundary between Sulli-
van and Orange counties. It has a beautiful Dutch name, primarily the
name of the mouth of the stream.

The act of 1801, defining the bounds of the county also defined the
limits of the several towns which were included in those bounds, viz :
Marlborough, Plattekill, Shawangunk, Kingston, Marbletown, New
Paltz, Woodstock, Mamakating, Neversink, Lumberland and Rochester.
From the original county (1798) had then been taken part of Orange
County, part of Delaware County (1797), and the towns of Mamakating,
Neversink and Lumberland went oif into Sullivan County, November
27, 1809. As now constituted the county is divided in the town and city
of Kingston, the towns of Denning, Esopus, Gardiner, Hardenbergh,
Hurley, Lloyd, Marbletown, Marlborough, New Paltz, Olive, Plattekill,
Rochester, Rosendale, Saugerties, Shandaken, Shawangunk, Wawarsing,
and Woodstock — 18.

By the general law of 1683, the j'udicial arrangement of 1669, was
changed by the organization of four distinct Courts, viz: Town Courts
for the trial of small causes, to be held each month ; County Courts, or
Courts of Sessions, to be held at certain times, quarterly or half yearly;
Courts of Oyer and Terminer, with original and appellate jurisdiction, to
sit twice in every year in each county, and a Court of Chancery, tc be
the “Supreme Court of the Province,” composed of the Governor and
Council, with power in the Governor to depute a Chancellor in his stead,
and appoint clerks and other officers. The Court of Oyer and Terminer
replaced more particularly the Court of Assizes as known under Dutch
laws. This system continued until 1691, when courts of Justices of the
Peace were organized in every town, and one of Common Pleas in every
county. Of the first Court of Common Pleas of Ulster County, Thomas
Garton was appointed Judge, February 27, 1692. He seems to have been
a resident of Marbletown, as he was one of the signers of the petition for

CIVIL ORGANIZATIONS AND DIVISIONS.

a patent for that town in 1703. Of early date (1677) John Garton of
Marbletown, asked permission to build a house on his lot there.

Some changes necessarily followed in the classification of the duties
of Sheriffs and of Constables. Every county had its High Sheriff and
every town its High Constable. A recapitulation of those changes is not
necessary. The first Sheriff of record after the organization of the county
was William Ashfordby, who, like Judge Garton, appears in the record of
patents. In the matter of granting probates of wills, the law of Nov. ii,
1692, directed that all probates and letters of administration should
thenceforth be granted by the Governor or his delegate, and that two
freeholders should be elected or appointed in each town to have charge
of the estates of intestates, which duty had been performed by the Con-
stables, Overseers, and Justices. All wills relating to estates in New York,
Orange, Richmond, Westchester, and Kings, were to be proved in New
York; in more remote counties, the Court of Common Pleas was author-
ized to take the proof and transmit the papers to the record office for
probate. Subsequently, under the law of 1750, Surrogates with limited
powers were appointed. Of Surrogates the first appointee of record was
John Elting, of the early New Paltz stock of Eltings, March 14th, 1760.

In 1701, the General Assembly, by act of October 18, provided that
the Justices of the Peace of the several counties, ‘‘or any five or more
of them, two to be a quorum,” should, once in each year, at a court of
general or special sessions, “supervise, examine and allow the public
and necessary charge of their respective county, and of every town
thereof,” including the “allowance made by law to their representative
or representatives,” i. e., in the General Assembly who drew their pay
from the counties. For the assessment and collection of the accounts
allowed by them they were “empowered to issue their warrant to the
several towns for the election of two assessors and one collector in each
town.” The act further provided that the “Justices at the representative
general sessions,” should, “once in the year, make provision for main-
tenance and support of the poor” in their several towns or precincts.

This law continued in force until June, 1703, when it was enacted
that there should be “elected and chosen, once every year, in each town,
by the freeholders and inhabitants thereof, one of their freeholders and
inhabitants to compute, ascertain, examine, oversee and allow the con-
tingent public and necessary charge of each county, and that each and

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

every inhabitant, being a freeholder in any manor, liberty, jurisdiction,
precinct, and out-plantation” should “have liberty to join his or her vote
with the next adjacent town in the county, where such inhabitants shall
dwell, for the choice of a supervisor.” The law further authorized the
election in each town or precinct of “two assessors and one collector.” In
general terms, the law constituted what is now, with some modifications,
the present Board of Supervisors. It was a more democratic law than that
which now prevails, in this, that it provided for minority representation,
and gave to females the right to vote as the representatives of property.
The noble old principle of “no taxation without representation” was firmly
intrenched in the hearts of the Dutch.

Representation in the General Assembly did not come to the county
under its organization in 1683. The Duke of York, bound hand and foot
to the prerogatives of royalty, would only permit a council of advisors to
the person whom he should appoint as Deputy Governor. His determina-
tion was not satisfactory. In 1669, the taxation of the people was decreed
to pay the expense of repairing the palisades of Fort James (Fort Am-
sterdam) at New York. Several towns on Long Island refused to
respond, substantially because under the British Constitution no taxes
could be levied on them except by their own Representatives. The tem-
porary reoccupancy of the Province by the Dutch, in 1673, carried the
question over to 1680, when several merchants in New York refused
to pay customs duties. The collector of the port of New York was
arrested for detaining goods on which duties had not been paid, and sent
over to England for trial. Coming directly under the eyes of the Duke
of York, he sent Colonel Thomas Dongan over as Deputy Governor with
instructions to convene a General Assembly, in which Esopus was given
two representatives. The Assembly met at Fort James, New York, Octo-
ber 17, 1683. The accession of the Duke of York to the throne of his
brother James, led him to reconsider the proposition for a General
Assembly, and in its stead to authorize the Deputy Governor, with the
advice and consent of his council, to enact such laws as he deemed best,
and to forward them to England. This arbitrary form of government
continued until June 9, 1689, when Captain Jacob Leisler seized the Fort
in the name of William and Mary, and, as acting governor, directed the
election of Members of Assembly. This assembly held two sessions.
Governor Slough ter came over in 1691, drove Leisler out and hung him.

CIVIL ORGANIZATIONS AND DIVISIONS.

The representative Assembly which had been proposed by Governor
Dongan was brought together. In that Assembly, the first representative
Assembly in the Province, April 9th, 1691, Ulster and Duchess, the latter
then being attached to Ulster, was represented by Henry Beekman, Wil-
liam de Mire, and Thomas Garton, whose names as settlers in Ulster
have already been met. The issue, “No taxation without representation,”
was carried forward for a, hundred years, and became, at the opening of
the Revolution, the “Battle Cry of Freedom.” What connection the peo-
ple of Ulster County had with the issue which had been raised cannot
be stated; what connection they had with its final determination is not
uncertain. Baptized with the best blood of pioneers and sons of liberty,
they stand before us to-day not wholly demoralized by the conditions by
which they are surrounded.

The organization of the village of Wildwijk, under the patent given to
it by Director Stuyvesant, May i6th, 1661, providing, among other things,
for the holding there once in every two weeks of a Court of Justice, the
jurisdiction of which extended over “all the inhabitants of Esopus,” gave
it, substantially, the rank of the county seat, a relation which has not been
taken from it. The holding of the court and the detention of prisoners
implies a place for the holding of the court and a place for the detention
of prisoners. Where the latter was is not clear; the former was pretty
certainly the building called “the Dominie’s house and lot,” assigned to
lot No. 4 in the first allotment. In the instructions issued to the Commis-
sioners appointed by Governor Lovelace, September iitIT, 1669, “that
they take some order for ye reparation of ye house next to Mr. Beek-
man’s, called ye Dominie’s or ye State House,” reference was made to this
building. It had been erected by Director Stuyvesant, and final bills
rendered in 1662; was apparently a stone structure of two stories with
a tile roof, a description inferable from the bills rendered * and from the
reply to the Commissioners that they “would retile the house when
wanted,” and particularly from their reference to its location under the
Governor’s instruction “to impale the place for Burryal, as likewise the
place for a Towne-House,” which the Commissioners “conceived to be

* The building was erected under an ordinance of Director S 'uyvesant, and its cost j>aid by a
land tax on the town. Its cost was 3,007.8 florins, or something over twelve hundred dollars of
our present standard. The bills included 5,000 brick, tiles, lime, boards, wainscoting, slating,
iron, hinges, locks, and nails, and wages of carpenters, masons, and hod-carriers. It was a sub-
stantial and for its times a very fine building. It was literally the Town-House, paid for by the
town.

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

a mistake,” as they had a Town-House already standing conveniently
within the town,” i. e. within the palisade; that it was “absolutely nec-
essary” that it should be kept in good repair from its frequent use “both
for religious duties and civil affairs,” and that they would proceed with
the work as “soon as pan-tiles and other materials” could be procured.
In stating a fact in regard to the house, they seem to have misunderstood
the Governor’s instructions in the matter of “impaleing” the burial ground
and the place reserved for a town-house, which obviously referred to lots
21 and 23 of the second allotment which had not been palisaded or “paled”
as had been ordered by Director Stuyvesant.

Possibly a jail was built soon after the house was repaired. The only
trace that we have of it is in an act of the General Assembly of 1715
requiring the Justices of the County to repair “the County-House and
Prison in the said county of Ulster now being.” In 1732, the Assembly
authorized “the Justices of the Peace of the county of Ulster” to build “a
Court House and Prison and to sell the old one. The new building on a
new site was repaired in 1745, 1750, 1765, 1773 and 1775, and in 1777
it was burned by the invading army of England under Vaughan and
Wallace, and soon after a lottery was granted to provide two thousand
pounds for rebuilding on the site occupied by the structure of 1732. It is
said that the building of 1782, was “set back in the lot about the same dis-
tance of the present one,” and that in front of it “were the public stocks
and whipping post,” the latter especially an ancient method, for the pun-
ishment of minor offenses, in those times very often employed for the
whipping of slaves, and in a few instances for the whipping of white
men as well as women. Primarily the constable was the whipping master.
The old court house was the scene of many famous trials and rang with
many eloquent appeals in the early days of the Revolution; the old jail
was crowded with political prisoners — King’s men — “Tories,” as they
were called. It was a cold bleak prison, the annals of which await the
pen of an Abbot. Compared with the “Old Sugar-House,” New York, in
which the British confined their prisoners, the latter was a palace.
The existing Court House, a spacious and handsome edifice, of fine Co-
lonial design, was erected upon the site of the ancient building in 1818,
and was greatly enlarged in 1898. In addition to the Court and Jury
rooms, the building contains the chambers of the resident Justice of
the Supreme Court, those of the County Judge, the offices of the District

CIVIL ORGANIZATIONS AND DIVISIONS.

Attorney, the County Treasurer, the Sheriff, Clerk of the Board of Su-
pervisors, and the Supervisors’ assembly room. Its walls are adorned
with the portraits of those Justices of the Supreme Court who have been
residents of the County and with the portraits of the County Judges
from an early period. A unique and remarkable feature of the Court
House is the cornice of its northern fagade which is classical in design,
of carved wood, and is regarded as the finest cornice of any public build-
ing in America. It frequently has been copied by architects who have in
part reproduced it in public buildings, in different parts of the Union.

At the time of the enlargement of the Court House in 1898, the County
erected a large and thoroughly modern jail which has served as a model,
for similar structures in various counties in the State.

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

CHAPTER VI.

COLONIAL MILITARY ORGANIZATIONS.

The military organizations of the county had their beginning in
the appointment by Director Stuyvesant (April 23d, 1660) of
Thomas Chambers as Captain of the inchoate militia — the
Trainband of Wildwijk and Esopus; Hendrick Jochem Schoonmaker,
Lieutenant, and Roelof Swartwout, Hendrick Jansen, Cornelius Barent-
sen Slecht, and Peter Jacobsen, minor officers. As noted in another con-
nection, Schoonmaker had had some previous military training. In official
signatures his name is written Hendrick Jochemsen. The officers named
evidently understood their responsibilities, but seem to have aroused
some opposition from the wording of the Ordinance which they adopted
January 2d, 1663, posted it on the door of the Town House in
Wildwijk, and had the mortification of seeing it torn down by order of
the Court at Wildwijk because therein was not acknowledged the au-
thority of the Magistrates. The authority of the Court must be respected
even in those primitive times. The real “hitch,” however, seems to have -
been that any one appearing on parade with borrowed fire-arms should
forfeit the same and also be liable to a fine of twelve guilders. The
Ordinance recited several facts that are of interest aside from its general
purpose. It reads :

“i. Whoever appears for training at the appointed place of gathering without
proper side and handarms, powder and lead, shall be fined and pay the first time
twelve guilders, the second time double that sum, and the third time he shall be
punished according to the judgment of the court-martial. Everybody must be pro-
vided with at least ten charges of powder, and lead, in the cartridge box besides
his full side and handarms.

“2. Whoever does not appear unless excused, or comes too late, shall pay a fine
of two guilders ; who remains away from contumacy or willfullness without suffici-
ent excuse, shall be fined and corrected arbitrarily by the court-martial in addition
to the above fine of two guilders.

“3. Sergeants, corporals and lancepesades (privates), who are too late or remain
away, shall pay a double fine.

“4. In case of alarm of fire the members of the Captain’s squad shall assemble
at the place near Barent Gerritsen, the brandy dfstiller; the members of the Lieu-
tenant’s squad near the wheelwright’s Albert Gysbertson; the third squad under
Pieter Jacobsen Molenear at Hendrick Jochemsen’s under a penalty of five and
twenty guilders.

COLONIAL MILITARY ORGANIZATIONS. 85

“5. All officers are forbidden to exchange with others, every one must appear
personally under a penalty of four and twenty guilders.

“6. It is ordered, that every one who mounts guard or reports at the place of
rendezvous, must have his own side and handarms, under penalty of confiscation of
the arms, which he may have borrowed from another, and he shall besides pay a
fine of twelve guilders.

“7. Nobody shall in being relieved from our mounting guard, or marching, be
allowed to load his musket with ball, wadding or paper, nor to discharge it at any
window, gable or weathervane, under a penalty of six guilders and reparation of the
damage done; but in discharging their muskets they shall raise it above man’s
height, under a like penalty, to prevent all mishaps.

“8. If anybody desires to remove from here to do his business elsewhere, either
at Manhattans, Fort Orange or some other place, he shall notify the Mustermaster
of his departure, under penalty of twenty-five stuyvers.

‘‘9. Nobody shall be allowed to mount guard, or appear at the rendezvous, when
intoxicated, and having reported; nobody shall curse or swear or profane God’s
holy name and sacraments, under a penalty of twenty-five guilders.

“Thus enacted at the meeting of the Citizen’s Council of War in the Village of
Wildwijk the first day of January, Anno 1663.” Thomas Chambers, Hendrick
Jochemsen, the mark X of Pieter Jacobsen, Cornelis Barentsen Slecht.

This was also published:

“Everybody is hereby informed that muskets, powder and lead, may be bought
at W outer the baker’s, and further, if no more is to be had, at W outer the baker’S;.
people may come to the officers of the trainband, who will inform them where they
may buy it for money. Done at Wildwyck, the 2d of January, 1663.

“Signed: By order of the officers of the trainband of Wildwyck Village.

“Mathews Capito-Mustermaster.’^

Very sensible rules indeed even judged from the standpoint of modern
discipline. The fines, perhaps, were heavy. A guilder was about forty
cents of our money — twenty-five guilders $10. In reporting them to
Director Stuyvesant, Captain Chambers wrote, “After the savages have
had several gatherings here with their Kinte Kaying, while we did not
know what they might attempt, we have not dared to omit calling together
the people on the ist of January of this year and tried to keep good order
to the best of our knowledge,’^ adding that unless the officers were not
sustained in the matter of their ordinances, “we shall not be able in
time of need to acquit ourselves of our duties.”

In and around the little village of Wildwijk was held, as stated in the
narrative quoted, on the New Year’s Day, 1663, the first general training,
or the first assembly of “the trainband.” “They were well entertained
by some citizens, but everything went well.” The inference which may
probably be drawn from the word “but” in the sentence is suggestive to
those who in years ago attended a general training. The reader can
easily change the word to “and.” Did either the officers or the privates
appear in uniforms? Did they have drums? Probably “Yes,” two
dozen drums were sent to them in 1659. Did they float the flag of Hol-
land?

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

That the men of that trainband were brave and efficient in dealing
with the Indians on the 7th of June following we have ample evidence.
Rallied from their labors in the fields to meet the Indian band who had
entered the village and were murdering their wives and devastating and
burning their homes, they fell upon the invaders without arms and drove
them out, says the book. There were some regular soldiers at the Rond-
out, but we do not read that they came to the aid of the trainband ; pre-
sumably they did not for the first inquiry sent out was to ascertain what
fate had befallen the post where they were stationed. From that dis-
astrous day, however, by order of Director Stuyvesant who had hastened
to the relief 'of the settlement, the commander of the military company,
Christiaen Niessen; the commander of the trainband, Thomas Chambers,
Roelof Swartwout, the Schout, and Hendrick Jochemsen, Lieutenant of
the trainband, and the commissaries, were placed in full charge, and the
inhabitants “commanded and directed” to obey them. The order was
changed a little when, on the 30th of June, Captain Marten Kregier and
his Council of War came upon the scene, and the guns of the last war
with the Indians of Esopus rang out in the wilderness. The results of
that war have been summarized in another connection; the students of
local history will find its incidents completely narrated in the original
documents in Colonial History of New York, volume XHL In connec-
tion with the colonial militia the only incident that may properly be
referred to there is the imperfect account of the action of Louis du Bois
and his neighbors who accompanied Kregier’s forces in their attack on
the Shawangunk Indian fort where were held the wife of Du Bois and
his children and most of the prisoners captured by the Indians in June,
of whom twenty-three were recovered, not even a hair of their heads
injured.

In 1669, April 4th, the commissioners appointed by Governor Love-
lace formally organized the militia of Hurley and Marbletown under the
following commissioned officers, viz : Henry Pawling, Captain ; Chris-
topher Beresford, Lieutenant; John Biggs, Ensign. Most if not all of
these men had been in regular employ as soldiers. Henry Pawling came
over as a soldier under Colonel Richard Nicolls in 1664, had “behaved
himself well,” so stated on his certificate of discharge, (April 18, 1670).
and became an honored resident of Ulster. His company will be met
later. Tuesday, April ist, 1669, Captain Chambers and his company were

COLONIAL MILITARY ORGANIZATIONS.

out for their annual review. The commissioners commanded them “to
remove the East Gate of Kingston to the middle of the curtained* The
company “was mustered and exercised/’ and the artillery was drawn
into the ffield and flyred,” says the record. The commissions of Captain
Chambers and Lieutenant Hendrick Jochemsen were renewed April i8th,
1670, and Mathys Mattysysen commissioned as Ensign. On the same
date commissions were issued to Pawling, Beresford and Biggs of the
new Hurley and Marbletown company. The company was “mustered
and exercised in their arms.” The laws relating to military affairs were
read before them, and “Then marched with flying colors to the town
of Hurley and there dismissed. The colors were lodged with a guard at
the Town Hall in Kingston, where the soldiers were commanded to
appear next day in court to draw their lots,” i. e. house lots which were
assigned to all soldiers who had been in the employ of the Government at
Kingston. The following is the roll :

Henry Pawling, Captain,

Christopher Berisford, Lieutenant,

John Biggs, Ensign,

Samuel Oliver, Sergeant,

Albert Heymensen, Sergeant,

Richard Cage, Drummer.

MARBLETOWN SOLDIERS.

Thomas Quynell,

Edwar: Ffrench,

William Fisher,

Wm : Horton,

John Hendrick,

Robt. Bickerstaffe,

Geor: Porter,

Robt. Peacock,

Joh: Pound,

John Reynolds,

Edw : Whitacre,

John Joesten,

Thom. Mathews,

Joesten,

George Hall,

Jacob de Wael,

Antho: Cooke,

Henry Crump,

Fredr. Hussey,

Fredr. Pietersen,

Antho: Addyson,

Cornel. Ffenehold,

Evart Price,

Gisbert Crump,

Thom: Edgar,

Garret Johnson,

HURLEY SOLDIERS.

Paulus Paulenson,

Jacob Carte.

Jacob Johnson,

Robert Goldsberry,

Leuys De Boys,

John Diboth,

Aaron Tunys,

Arian Ffrancis,

Lambert Hyberts,

Allard Rose,

Wardener Hornbeck,

Arian Rose,

Garret Fokar,

John Rose,

Garret Corneliuson,

Pieter the Negro,

Ffrancois Le Shiere,

Mathias Blanchan,

John Albertson,

Arian Albertse,

In all 54.

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

During the few months that the Dutch repossessed the Province
(1673), the Governor, Clove, appointed Captain Mathys Mathysen,
Lieutenant Jan Willensen, and Ensign Mathys Barentsen, officers of the
Kingston, or as it was then named by the Dutch, Swaenenburg, com-
pany, and Albert Heymansen, Captain; Jan Braersen, Lieutenant, and
Gerrit Andriaensen Ensign of the Hurley and Marbletown company, but
no service appears under the appointments. The old order was soon
restored.

In 1685, Aug. 30, Thomas Chambers was appointed Major of the
foot and horse forces in the County of Ulster, and on the same date a
troop of horse was constituted under Hendrick Beekman, Captain ; Wessel
Ten Broek, Lieutenant; Daniel Brodhead, Cornet, and Anthony Addison,
Quartermaster. On the same date “a foot company for Kingston and
New Paltz was formed — Matthias Mattheysen, Captain, Abraham
Hasbrouck, Lieutenant, and Jacob Rutgers, Ensign. A company of foot
was also organized for Hurley, Marbletown and Mombaccus — Thomas
Garton, Captain, John Biggs, Lieutenant, and Charles Brodhead, Ensign.
In 1700 the county had (including one from Duchess) seven companies
of infantry, and a troop of horse, together numbering three hundred and
twenty men. Further than that Jacob Rutsen was Lieutenant Colonel,
the Field Officers are not of record.

Peace reigned around the habitations of Ulster County for three
quarters of a century after the close of the war of 1663; the “dark and
bloody” ground of the province was transferred to the northern frontiers
and the country of the Iroquoians, more particularly to the valley of the
Mohawk. Between the tribe occupying that valley and the French in
Canada there was an irrepressible hostility springing primarily from the
alliance of the French with the Huron-Iroquoi and the Algonquians who
were seated in proximity to the French settlements, fanned by the con-
flicting interest of the civilizations of France and England, the former
largely influenced by the efforts of the Jesuit missionaries for the con-
version of the Indians to the Catholic faith. For nearly one hundred years
the Mohawks and their confederates devastated the French plantations in
Canada, and in retaliation the armies of France scourged the Iroquoian
country. In 1687, wearied by the repeated devastations of the Iroquoi,
who were furnished with the munitions of war by the English, Count de
Frontenac, the Governor-general of Canada, or New France as it was
known, determined to attack the English plantations as the allies of the

^^9^avEd by J K. CamV beT-l.T^-

COLONIAL MILITARY ORGANIZATIONS.

Iroquoi. Planning three aggressive divisions of his forces, one to attack
Fort Albany (old Fort Orange), one to attack New England, and one
to attack Fort James (old Fort Amsterdam), the former, under the lead
of the Count himself, came down from Quebec in the winter of 1690,
attacked and destroyed Schenectady (Feb. loth), and massacred most
of its inhabitants, and then retreated. Presumably the English had made
some preparation for the defense of Fort Albany, they had repaired
and strengthened the palisades of the fort, and ordered the assembling
there of one-tenth of the militia of the counties. Presumably the militia
of Ulster responded to this call, as they did to others, but records of
names have not been handed down. The order reads :

* * These are therefore in his Mag’ties name to will and require
you and every of you forthwith upon receipt hereof to select out of the
County of Ulster one hundred or eighty at least good able men, complect
in armes, which shall be transported to Albany for his Mag’ties service
at upon the first day of January next, and that at all times before, uppon
notice of the Commiss’s at Albany of the enemies approaching you send
the number of men or as many as can be obtained without thelay (delay),
as you will answer the contrary at your utmost peril.” Dated Nov. 16,
1690, addressed “To Major Thomas Chambers and the rest of the Mil-
itary Officers under his Direction in the County of Ulster.”

Here follows an order “to Capt. Barent Lewis, Mr. Schemerhorne
and their assistants,” to press 20 men with arms and 300 skepples peas
and 250 skepples Indian come within the County of Ulster for the expe-
dition of Albany.

The French expeditions having failed, the English projected two or
three retaliatory invasions of Canada. In 1691, twenty-seven men were
detached from the Ulster militia for the defence of Albany. They were:

Alb’t Jance V. Steenwyck,
Arent F3aihout,

Arien Van Netten,

Jan Helmerse,

Isaac Kermer,

Thierebce Galone,

David Sunderland,

Jan Krispell,

Joshua Stare,

John Conner,

John Colledgc,

Calem Meguiddech,

John McKlowed,

John Fortune,

Wm. Carmes,

Dirk Duytcher,

Claus Melgertse,

Pr. Quackebos,

Melgertse,

Jacob Hendrickse,

Adam Simpson,

Edward Blake,

Dirk Dirkse Vand’r Karr,
Cornelius Schemerhoorn,
Isaac Vredenburgh,
Ephraim Carpenter,
Joseph Burgess,

Thomas Matthew.

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

Turning to the militia rolls, we have in that of 1700 — with the ex-
ception of the full list of field officers — apparently the first organized
“regiment of militia in the counties of Ulster and Duchess,” the latter
county being then included with Ulster. The officers were :

"Jacon Rutsen, Lieutenant Colonel.

“Of a foot Company in ye said countys : Matthias Mattyson, Captain; Evert
Bogardus, Lieut; Teunis Tappen, Ensigne.

“Of another foot Company in ye s’d countys: Abso : Hasbrooke, Captain; Moses
Quantaine, Lieut ; Lewis Bayea, Ensigne.

“Of another foot Company in ye said county: George Middah, Capt ; Gysbert
Krom, Lieut; Alex. Rosecrans, Ensigne.

“Of another foot Company in ye said counties: Aria Rose, Captain; John Rose,
Lieut.; Aria Gerruntes, Ensigne.

“Of another foot Company in ye said countys: Jocham Schoonmaker, Captain;
John Van Camp, Lieut. ; Jacob Decker, Ensigne.

“Of another foot Company in ye said countys: Coenrad Elmendorf, Captain;
Mattyse Sleight, Lieut. ; Garret Wyncoop, Ensigne.

“Of another foot Company in ye said countys: Baltus Van Cleet Captain; Hen-
drick Kipp, Lieut. ; John Ter Bus, Ensigne. (This Company was in Dutchess
County.)

“Of ye troop of Horse in ye said Regiment: Egbert Schoonmaker, Captain; Com
Decker, Lieut; Abra. Gasbert, Cornet; Mattyse Jansen, Quartermaster.

“This regiment consists of three hundred five and twenty men.”

Following the succession of Anne to the throne of England in [702,
the war known in Europe as the “War of the Spanish Succession,” and
in America as “Queen Anne’s War,” continued until April ii, 1713. New
York scarce knew of its existence, although the province was put in
condition for defense and offence. Among the records of that period is
the following:

“County of Ulster, July, 1711. List of the Company under the command of Cap-
tain Wessel Ten Broeck; Lieutenant John Pawling and Ensigne Elyas Van
Bunschoten, to March upon ye expedition to Canada, viz:

f Sergjt. Jan Decker, Volunteer,

Corporal, Christoffel Van Leuven, “
Drummer, Jan Mackleen, “

Isaac Hasbrouck, “

Lammert Koal, “

Jacob Vernoy, “

Lowies Barree, Junior, Hyred,

Tobias Van Buren, “

Dirck Janse, “

Rub Van Woerde, Volunteer,

Jacobus Bos, “

David de Duyster, “

Jacob Koal,

John Wood, Junior, “

Nathanyel Davinpoort, “

Willem Burhans, “

Pieter Van Garde, Detached,

Jacob Van Dermarke,
Lammert Dolderbrink,
William Sluyter,
Willem Rosa,

Gysbert Rosa,

Mattys Van Rosendall,
Arent Van Ostrande,
William Ringfold,
Evert Terwillige,
Maurits Klaarwater,
Jan Lefaber,

Ephraim Bogardus,
Wilhelmus Beekman,
Albartus Provoost,
Johannes Hornbeeck,
Johannes Kuykendall,
Jacobiiet Soor,

Volunteer,

Detached,

Volunteer,

Hyred,

Volunteer,

COLONIAL MILITARY ORGANIZATIONS.

Arie Van NiewKierck,
Mattys Slegt, Junior,
Hasuel Mattysen,
Thomas Armist,

Marten Bogart,

Thomas Quick,
Matthew Beckwith,

Volunteer,

Hyred,

Detached,

Volunteer,

Willem Koal,

Jan Gerritse Decker,
Roelof de Duytser,
Andries Brusie,
Hilbrant Lootman,
Frans de Lange,
Hartman Rynderse,

Volunteer,

The expedition was unfruitful. The Ulster contingent, with its asso-
ciates reached the point of rendezvous, but the fleet with the naval forces
was caught in a heavy fog and lost four or five transports with eight
hundred men on board. The survivors made haste to get back to pleasant
waters, and the colonial contingent, hearing of the disaster, made equal
haste in reaching their rural homes. It is a little curious that no invading
force of English colonists ever succeeded in accomplishing much in their
expeditions against the French in Canada.

Turning over the leaves of the record we have, in 1715, a very complete
enrollment of the regiments in the words and figures following :

A List of the Troop Under the Command of Cap^n. John Rutsen

(Ulster County)

Cap’n John Rutsen,

Cornet Philip Hoogtieling,

Quarte Master John Baptist Dimond.

Arent van Woagene
Corp’ll Willem Shepmoes
Philip Viele
Hendrick Haremans
albert Kierstade
Christoffle Tappun
Jacobus Cleverdorfe Jun’r
Johannes Lamater
Salomon van Bunschoote
Cornelia Lameter
Peber Cantyn
Johannes Decker
Arie Hendrickse
Johannes ten Broek
Hendrick Janse
Corp’ll Cornells Vernoy, Jun’r
Peter Osterhout
James Whittaker
Barent Burhans
Thomas Mattyse Junn’r
Hendrick Schoonmaker, Jun’r
wessell ten broeck, Jun’r
Gerret Eleverdorp
Jacob Ten broeck
Symon Van Wagonen

Corp’ll Gerret Newkerk
Egbert Brink
Gerret Newkerk Jun’r
Anthony Creppell
Nicolas Roosa
Loiwis Dubois Jun’r
Corp’ll Albert Palling
Hendrick Krom
Jacob van dir marcken
Johannes Kooll
Thomas Janse
Jacob Rutsen Jun’r
Corp’ll Dirck Roosekrans
Tyerck De witt
Samuel Schoonmaker
Frederick Schoonmaker
Moses De Puy Jun’r
Corp’ll Louis Du Bois
Salomon Haesbrock
Johannes West broeck
Cornells De Puy
Daniell Haesbroek
Daniell Du booyi
Phillip Du Bois
Jacob Haesbroek

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

The Role of the Companie of Cap'n Wittaker in the Regiment
CoLLo Jacob Rutsen in Ulster County.

Commiss Officers

Jan Post
Tierck Matteyson
Anthony Crespell
goose Van Wagne
John Devenport
Teunis Swart Jun’r
Jacob Louis Louw

Parent Newkerk
Jan Oosterhout
Johannes Burhans
Abraham Burhans
Samuell Burhans
Nathaniel Davenport
Wallerand Dumont
Wallerand Dumont Jun’r
Peter Ploegh
Jan Ploegh
Gysbert Peele
Lowrens Swart
Johnannes Trap hagen

Abraham Louis Louw

Barent Burhans
Charles Barwa
William Haris
Teunis Swart
William Wyt
Peter Oosterhout, Jun’r
Willem Ploegh
Jacobus Du Bois

Cap’n Edward Wittaker
Lieft Hendrick Schoonmaker
Sergt Thomas Van Steenbergen
Sergt Matteys Van Steenbergen
Sergt Peter Tappen
Corp’ll Cryn oosterhout
Corp’ll Arie Van Vliet
Drum’r Ephraim Bogardus

David Burhans

Edward Wood

Aaris Van Steenbergen

Jury Beem

Willem Burhans

Christoffill Moull

Peter Winne

Jacob Cool

Thomas Persson

Johannes Hasten

Pieter Peele

Jan Oosterhout JunT

Hendrick Oosterhout

Hendrick Brink

Isaac Burhans

Phillip Feller

Gerret Decker

Abraham Van Steenbergen

Johannes Swart

Johannes Van Steenbergen

Wilhelmus Hoogteyling

Abraham Ploegh

John Legg

Dirck Wynkoop

Tierck Shoemaker

Jacob Ploegh

Jan Peterse Oosterhout

Johannes Crespel

A List of a Ffoot Company of Mallitia for the Town of

Under the Command of Cap'n Johannes Vernooy in the
Regiment of Ulster County Jacob Rutsen Coll

Cap’n Johannes Vernooy
Lieut David Dubois
Insign Loderyck Horenback
Sergt Hendrick Rosekrans
Sergt Albertus Van Garde
Sergt Frederick Van Vliet
Corp’ll Johannes Quick
Corp’ll Cornelius Vancken

John Van Kampe Willem Koole

Samuell bevier Tobyas Horenbeek

COLONIAL MILITARY ORGANIZATIONS.

Cornelis De Duyser
Jan Bevier
Peter Louw
Jan Van Vliet
Johannes Wasbroek, Jun'r
Anthony Wasbroek
Jan van Ette
Jacob Van Ette
Wouter West vael
Jurie West vael
Willem Decker
Johannes Horenbeck
^yrck De Witt
Manis Koole
Matthys Louw
Jan after houdt
I homas Quick
Jan Decker
^Gerrit Decker
Jurie Quick
Cornelis Kortright

Peter Cort reght
Jacobus Wyn Koop
Jacobus Schoonmaker
Johannis Du puy
Dirck Krom
Manis Decker
Jan Kortright
Peter Van Garde
Hendrick Van Garde
Harme van garde
Barent Koole
Carnelis Koole
Cornelis Schoonmaker
Peter Dolderbrink
Hendrick Dolderbrink
Thornes Swartwout
Jacobus Swartwout
Harme Van Nim wegen
Peter De Maer
Jacob Koddeback

A List of a Ffoot Company of Mallitia for the Towne of Horley

Under the Command of CapFn Johannes Shepmoes in the
Regiment of Ulster County Jacob Rutsen Collo-

Cap’n Johannes Shepmoes
Lieut Jacob Du Bois
Insign Jan Newkerk
Sergt Albert Roosa
Sergt William Van Vreedenburgh
Corp’ll Gerret Constapel
Drom Johannes Van Ette
Corneelis Wynkoop
Petter Van Ette
Jacobus Van Ette
Huybert Suylant
Egbert Konstapel
Jan Crispele
Aarent Oostrande
Albert Janse Roosa
John Roosa Jun’r
Arie Roosa
Charles Wyle

Lambert Brink
Lowrens Kortreyt
Jacob Ten Eyck
Cornelius Newkerk
Jan Van Duese
Dirck De duyster
Abraham Ten Eyck
Jacob Brink
Jan Evertse ter Wilge
Hendrick Kon Stapel
Matthias ter Wilge

A List of the Ffoot Company of Mallitia of Marbletown Under
the Command of Cap'n Wm Nottingham in the Regiment
of Ulster County Under the Command of Collo
Jacob Rutsen
Cap’n William Nottingham
Lieut Thomas Cock
Inse Matthias Blanchan
Sergt Cornelis Tack
Sergt Nicholas Keator

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

Sergt Jeremy Keettell
Corp’ll Marte Bogart
Corp’ll William Cock
Corp’ll Lambert Dolderbrink
Drum John Van Luven
Clerk Charles Leatty

Henry Pawling

Nicolas Sluyter

Cornelis Ettinge

Nicolas Dupuis

Andries Van Vliet

Gerret Van Campen

Daniell Brodhead

Jacob Van Campen

Charles Brodhead Jun’r

Abraham Van Kampen

James Robinson

John Biggs

Samuell Cock

Jurin Best

Nicholas Blanchan

Peter Van Aken

Robert Beatty

Manuell Consales

William Beatty

Manuell Consales Jun’r

Nicholas Schoonhoven

Peter Van Bommelen

Ariaen Van der Mark

Marius Van Bommelen

Jacob Van Wagenin

Christoffel Van Bommelen

Benjamin Van Wagenin

Nicolas Schoonhoven

Abraham Van Wagenin

Mosis De Graef

Jacob Dewitt Jun’r

Abraham De Graef

Egbert Dewitt

Jan Clyn

Roderick Van der Mark

Johannes Willem

Cornelis Keyser

Harrnanus Hommel

Jacob Keyser

Teunis Turpenninck

Augustinus Van der Mark

Jan Syanners

Jacobus Boss

Nicolas Rouw

RoelofY Doldirbrink

Rehan Henneman

Thomas Doldderbrink

Felter Pinner

Dirck Kerne r

Hendrick Beem

Teunis Koole

Willem Swart

Jacobus Tack

Johannes Schoonmaker

John Tack

Symen Helen

Abraham Tack

Jacobus Van Etten

Gysbert Roosa

Johannes Swart

John Roosa, Jun’r

Richard Weis

Simon Van Wagenin

Cornelis Lange Dyck

Teunis Keyser

Johannes Crispel

Captain Hoffman, Ulster County, 1716.

Seryant Aberam Deyow
Korperal Hendark Van Wye
Korperal Hage Serenyunen
Jakop Klarwatr
Capt Schgryes Hofman
Levtt Andries Lowerre
Insyne Lewis Lowies Jun
Aberam De Boys
Aberam Schut
Tuns Klar water
Att Klarwater
aberam ferer
yakop ferer
henderk de yoou
elyas yu

toms Spenek
Benjemen du boois
yan terpenega
henderik Dekar
hogo Stins
joswea Smedes
hender Schonmakr
felp meler

Court House.

COLONIAL MILITARY ORGANIZATIONS.

hans meler
beniman hasberok
yoel de bois
wel soderlen
pitr makrigr
verek mynders
korporeal Andris Valk
hans serin
yakop werr
sandr garik
Melkert Schryn
Sy Sun hen
En sun tames

The reader must decipher some of the orthographies. Near the end
of the list we may spell out the names of some of the Palatine immigrants,
who located in what is now Newburgh, in 1709. Wel Soderlen stands
for William Sutherland, and Pitr Makrigr stands for Peter or Patrick
MacGregor, the latter the occupant at the mouth of Murderer’s Creek,
and the former in an adjoining patent. Verek Mynders stands for Burger
Meynders who later owned what is now Washington’s Headquarters.
Korporeal Andries Valk stands for Andries Valck who held lot No. 9 of
the German Patent (Newburgh). Melkert Schryn stands for Melgert
de Schrynewerker whose land was near the present south line of Ulster.
En sun looks like Ensign Thames or Thomas.

As one of the leading objects of this work is to put within easy reach
records which are the foundation of local genealogical research, no apol-
ogy is needed for a continuation of the military list of this era. To become
established of record as a descendant from stock who wielded a sword or
carried a gun in the Colonial wars is an honor of which any one may be
justly proud. Passing on we have a complete return of the Ulster regi-
ment in 1738, as follows:

Ulster County Militia, 1738.

Collo A. Gaasbeek Chambers.

Le’t Collo Wessel Ten Broeck.

Major Coenradt Elmendorp.

Quarter Master Cornells Elmendorp.

Ulster SS. A List of the Troopers Under the Command of Capt

JoHANNis Ten Broeck.

Capt Johannis Ten Broeck
Lieut’t Wessel Ten Broeck JunT
Com’t Tho’s Gaasbeek Chambers
I St Qr. Mas. Hendrickus Krom
2nd Qr. M. Johannis De Lamatre
Trump’r Abraham Constapell

huge Serem
kresbyan de yaw
yakop gertsedeker
Lendert Kol
anderis borin
ysack lefever
yan lafever
piter daow
Evert terwelge
Hyge Aberamse fere
ysak ferer
Symen ferer
Sems Spenek

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

1st Corpor’l Richard Wells
2nd Corpor’l Gerrit Elmendorph
3rd Corpor’l Arie Van Vliet
4th Corpor’l Martie Lamatre

5 Corpor’l Ffrederick Schoonmaker

6 Corpor’l Solomon Haasbrock

Solomon Van Bunschoten Jan Tuenis Oosterhout

Jacob Haasbrock
Cornelius Depue
Arent Ploegh
Samuel Schoonmaker
Tjerck Schoonmaker
Samuel Bovie
Benjamin Depue
Egbert Brinck
Jan Ffreer

Cornelis Ten Broeck
Johannis Wynkoop Jun’r
Daniel De Bois
Daniil Haasbrock
Jacobus Schoonmaker
Thomas Nottingham
Abraham Van Wagenen
Cornelis De Witt
Cornelis New Kerck
Petrus Ten Broeck
Abraham de Lamatre
Wilhelmus Van Hooghtyling J’r
Joghem Schoonmaker Jun’r
Wessel Jacobs Ten Broeck

Martie Middagh
Johannis Dubois
Arie Oosterhout
\Vessel Broadhead
Simon Jacobs Van Wagenen
Simon Van Wagenen
Jacob Van Wagenen
Egbert De Witt
David Burhance
Edward Whittaker Jun’r
Petrus Tappen
Coenraedt Elmendorph Jun’r
Abraham Hardenbergh
Gysbert Hend’k Krom
Leonard Hardenbergh
Cornelis New Kerck
Jacob Rutsen Jun’r
Harma Rosekrans
Philip Dumon
Lucius Elmendorph
Abraham Kiersted
James Scott
William Krom Jun’r

Totil 60.

A List of the Foot Company of Militia of the Corporation of
Kingston Under the Command of Capt John Persen

Capt John Persen
Lievte. Peter Oosterhout
Ensign Edward Whittaker
Sarja Aarey Newkerk
Sarja Ned Davenport
Sarja Jacobus Van Dyck
Corpo Samuel Nights
Corpo Nathan Dubois
Corpo Solomon Freer
Dromer Andries Van Leven
Samuel Wood
Jacobus Roosa
Coenradt Elmendorp
Jacobus Persen v

Phillip Hoof
Hendricus Oosterhout
Daniel Whittaker
Samuel Davenport
Cornelis Persen
William Myre
Christian Myre
William Legg

Humphy Davenport
Mosas Youman
Brure Decker
John Decker
Tobias Winekoop
Jacobus Debois Jn’r
Samuel Debois
William Whittaker
Jacobus Whittaker
John Davenport Jn’r
Johanes Schram
Come Longing Dyck

COLONIAL MILITARY ORGANIZATIONS.

Peter Van Leven
Nemiah Debois
Ricard Davenport
Andris Hoof
Abra Harcenberge
Anthony Sleght
John Legg Jn’r

A List of the Foot Company

Johannes Humble
Godfrey Woolf Jn'r
Frederick Row
Michel Planck
Jurian Tappen

Robert Bever Totall 47.

Militia of the Corporation of

Kingston Under the Command of Capt. Tjrck Van Keuren.

Capt Tjrck Van Keuren
Lievten’t Abraham Low
Ensign Dirck Winekoop
Serg’t William Swart
Serg’t Tobias Van Bueren
Corp’l Petrus Smedes
Corp’l Ephrairn Dubois
Corp’l Marynis' Van Aken
Drom’r Corn’l Jansen
Willem Eltinge
Peter Van Aken
Thomas Beekman
Evert Bogardus
Cornelis Van Kueren
Cornells Sleght
David De Lamatter
Frans Hendrick
Nicholas Bogardus
Jan Heermans
Tuenis Van Steenbergh
Abra Van Steenbergh
Hendrikus Slegh
Johannis Dubois
Abra De Lamatter
Johans Ba: De Witt
Hiskiah Dubois
Evert Winekoop Jn’r
Tobias Van Steenbergh
Jan Van Aken
Johannis Chonsalisduck
Jan Perse Jn’r
Petrus Low
Isaac Van Wagenen
Abra Van Kueren
Gerett Freer

Corn’l Perse

Robert Beever

Mooses Jorck

Giedeon Van Aken

Joseph Chonsalisduck

Thimoteos Van Steenbergh

Jacobus De loo

Dirck Teerpen

Maas Bloemendal

Jacob Turck

Jacobus Eltinge

Jan Lome

Johannis Felter

Jame Letsin

Peter Vanderline

Petrus Eltinge

Cornl De Lametter Jn’r

Abra Lome Jn’r

Jacobus Van Kueren

Willen Krom

Petrus Van Aken

William Deen

Dirck Van Vleet Jn’r

Benjamin Van Vleet

Johannis Van Vleet Totil 60.

A List of the Foot Company of Militia of the Corporation of

Kingston Under the Command of

Capt Tjrck Dewitt

Left Petrus Bogardus

Insi Igenas Dumont

Serj’t Jury Snyder

Serj’t William Wells

Serj’t Petrus Viele -

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

Corpo Lukas Dewitt
Corpo Peter Dumont
Corpo Wilhelmus Houghteling
Clark Jarman Pick

Zacryas Hoffman, Ju’r

Phillip Vide Ju’r
Sam’ll Wells

Petrus Edmundus Elmendorp

Lenard Herdenbergh

Come Viele

Jacob Hardenbergh

Come Marston

Peter Leehonte

John Masten

Jacobus Deyoe

Gerritt Viele

Johans Degrave

Jacobus Dumond

Come Vankuren

Benja Marten

Jacobus Vanetten

John Maclene

Mattys Merkell

Antony Hoffman

Hendrick Vreligh

Hendr Vankuren

Coenrad Rechtmire

Tuenis Ploegh

Heskia Winekoop

Dirck Shepmoes

Gerrett Davenport

Johanes Wide

Art Masten

Geritt Van Steenbergh
Come Van Kuren, Ju’r

Coenra Vanburen

Albert Beein

Johanis Masten

Dirck Teepening

John Waters

Christian Derick

Henry Ellis

P'rederick Row

Jacob Mauris

Tobias Winekoop

Isaac Wheeler

William Bell

Humph Davenport

Arie Ddonga

Peter Burgar

Corne Vandenbergh

Isaac Dubois

Johans Hoghteling
Jacob Dubois Ju’r

Johans Shepmoes

A List of the Foot Company of Militia of the Corporation of
Kingston Under the Command of

Capt Hendrick H. Schoonmaker
Lent; John Sleght
Insjn Eawrens Van Gaasbeck
Sarj. Edward Wood
Sarj, Dirck Van Vleet
Sarj. Jacobus De Lametter
Corpo Teunis Swart
Corpo Johannes Snyder
Corpo William Oosterhout
Clark Benjamin Sleght
John Ploegh
Peter Winne
Heskiah Schoonmaker
Teunis A. Swart
Aarent Ploegh
John Wittaker
Abra Burhans
Cryn Oosterhout
Jan Peterse Oosterhout
Marta Snyder
Zachary Backer
Lawrence Salisbury
Aares Van Steenbergh

Abra Post
Abra Oosterhout
Jan Woolf
Johannis Burhans
Hendricus Ploegh Jn’r
Hendr Krynse Oosterhout
Petrus Krynse Oosterhout
Johannis Burhans Jn’r
Poules Pelen
Bowdewine Vanderlip
Teunis Van Bunschote
Wilhelmus Demyer
Jacobus Van Steenbergh
Hendricus Ploegh

COLONIAL MILITARY ORGANIZATIONS.

Teunis Oosterhout Abra Davenport

Jan Krinse Oosterhout Petrus Oosterhout

Hendrick Brinck Cornr Swart

Jacob Brinck Grieg Magriegere Totll 46.

Lawrens Swart

A List of the Foot Company of Militia of Marbletown Under the

Command of Capt. Daniel Brodhead.

Capt Daniel Brodhead
Lievt John Dewitt
Ensign John Brodhead
Serjeant Martin Bogart
Serjeant Jacobus Bush
Serjeant Thomas Keator
Corporal Cornelius Van Kampen
Corporal Christopher Davis
Corporal Jacob Keator
Drummer Peter Vandenbergh
Clerke Ric’d Pick

Lambert Brinck

Hendr Bush

Johannes Van Luven

John Price

Andreas Van Luven

Lambert Bush

Jacob Keyser

Moses Depuy

Valentine Smith

Johans Vandermarke

Tuenis Klarwater

Thoms Vandermarke

Frederick Davis

Nicholas Vandermarke

Gysbt Roosa

Thoms More

Jan Roosa

John Kroni

James Algar

Henry Krom Jn’r

Hartman Hine

Robert Maginnis

Arien Vandermarke

Lewis Bevier

Jacob Vandermarke

Johanas Kool

Jacob Middagh

Andreas Conterman

Jacobus Tack

Henry Conterman

Isaac Tack

Adam Hoffman

Johannes Jansen

Hendricus Van Steenburgh

Dirck Bush -

Abra Constaple

Melgart Ketor

Moses Cantien

Thos Vandermarke

Nicholas Keyser

Augustinus Ketor

William Hine

Hendr Vandermarke

John Wood

Dirck Keyser

Johannes Elting

Samuel Davis

Anthony Gerrits

Samuel Cock

Jacob Sleyter

Benja Davis

Nicholas Sleyter

Alexander Ennis

Nicha Sloyter Jn’r

Andrew Kernith

Johannes Depuy

Isaac Van Kampen

Richard Lonsberry

Samuel Mourits

William Ennis

Johans Thomas

Augtis Vandemarke

Johannes Bush

Eph'aim Chambers '

James Robinson

Dirck Keyser Jn’r

Mathew Algar ' '

Jacob Keyser Jn’r

Come Tack Jn’r

Fredr Schoomker

lOO

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

Henry Jansen Power Easel

Thos Bush Edward Robason

Fredr Keator John Smith Totll 8o.

A List of the Company of Militia of the Wall a Kill Under the
Command of Capt. John Byard.

; Capt John Byard

Lievt William Borland
Ensign William Keils
Serj’t John Newkerk
Corpo John Miller

Lendert Coll

Celab knep

Cornelius Coll

Robert McCord

Barnat Coll

William fallkne

John Robeson

Ezrail Rodgr

John McNeill

Jeremiah Rodgr

Andraw borland

Robert Buchanan

John borland

James Egar

John McNeill Ju’r

Sojornars Her

James Glispy

Thomas McCollom

Thomas Glispy

John Haves

John Willkine

M kam Clein

William Wilkins

Jury burger

Andraw Graham

Hugh flenign

George Olloms

Benja benot

John North

Patrick Me peick

John North Ju’r

John Eldoris

Samuel North

Patrick Galasby

James Young

John Lowry

Robert Young

Samuel mith

Mathew Young

Jopth Teall

John Andraws

James Craford

James McNeill

Joseph Sutter

James Craford

David Cree

John Craford

Edward Andrews

Alexander Milligan

Samuel Crayford

Nathaneill Hill

Endrew Doell

Alixd kid

Phillip Milsbugh

Archabald Hunter

Cronamas Mingus

James Hunter

Stuffel Moll

John Wharrey

James Rodgr

Benja Hins (Haines)

James Whit

John McNeill Senior

John Manly

Mathew Prea

francius walls

William Craford

Robert Hughby

Robert hunter

Hendrick Crist

James Munall

Hunas Crist _

Gors Monull

Lowrance Crist

John Munall

Mattys Milsbigh

William Monall

and his son

Thomas Neils

' John Mings

Robert Neils

Stevanis Crist

John Neils

Jacob bush

Mathew Neils

Hannas Crane

David Gill, Jr.

COLONIAL MILITARY ORGANIZATIONS.

lOI

Nathaniell jojter
John Neily ju’r
Joseph butteltown
Thomas Colman
Joseph Shaw
pathrick broodrick
William Soutter
John butfield
John Me ye
John Jones
Joseph knap
Isakiah Gaill

John Yong
Hendrick Newkerk
Frederick Sanzabus
Cornelius walls
Cronamas falter
Richard Gatehouse
John boy Is
Richard boyls
John Jameson
John McDonall

James Davis totll 114.

A List of the Foot Company of Militia of Hurly Under the Com-
mand OF Capt. Cornelis Wine Coop.

Capt Cornelis Wine Coop
Left Antonie Crispel
Insin Abraham Ten Eyck
Serje Hendrick Konstaple
Corp’l Solomon fer Willege
CorpT Jacob Vanwagene
Drom’r Marynis Chambers
Jan Van Duese Clarke
Nicolas Blansjan
Lambert Brinck
Tuenis Oostrander
Jan Roosa
Hendrick Oostrander
Gerret Konstaple
Johannis Crospel
Johannis Suylandt
Arie Van Etten
Gerret Jeo Freer
Harmanus Oostrander
Robert Wieler
Wouter Sluyter
Evert Sluyter
Willem Smit
Gerret Van Wagenen
Johans Van Wagenen
Aert Van Wagenen
Matys Blansyan Ju’r
Simon Helm
Adam Sjeever
Jefta De Lange
Crisstoffel Brosie
Antonie Crispel Ju’r
Johan’s Konstaple
Andries Van Vliet

Heyman Roosa
Jan A Roosa
Gysbert Roosa Ju’r
Jan Crispel Ju’r
Drick Roosa
Ned Wieler
Edvart Chammers
Daniel potter
Jan Ja: Roosa
Abra Roosa
Nicolas Roosa
Benja Clearwater
Jan ter Willege Ju’r
Jan Van Deuse Ju’r
Jan Brinck

Johannis Oostrander Ju
Willem Sluyter Ju’r
Flendrick Ja: Freer
Jan Waters
Albert Ja: Roosa
Mattheus Nienkerck
Benja Nieukerck
Petrus Crispel
Willem Burhans
Jacop Clyn

Jacop Oostrander I'otll 60^

102

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

A List of the Foot Company of Militia of Rocester (Rochester)
Under the Command of Capt. Cornelius Hoornbeck.

Capt Cornelius Hoornbeck
Lieut phillip Dubois
Ensign Cornelius B: Low
Serja Johannis Hoornbeck
Serja John Wesbroeck
Serja Harmanis Rosekrans
* , Corpo Samuel Swarthout
Corpo Tuenis Middagh
Corpo Manuel Gonsalis

Arien Van Vliet

John Schoonmaker

John Hillmen

Frans Kelder

Jacob Kelder

William Kelder

Felter Kelder

Benja van wagenen

John Robeson

Jacob Dewitt Ju’r

John Dewitt ; ,

Cornelius Winekoop

Jacobus Terwillige

John Terwillige

Jacobus Quick

Jacobus Depue

Joha Hendreickson

Joha Krom

Hendrick Krom

Daniel Schoonmaker

Jocham Fra: Schoonmaker

Johannis Miller

Josaphat Dubois

Jacob Vernoy

Tuenis Oosterhout Ju’r

Kryn Oosterhout

Nicholas Ketor

Petrus Oosterhout

Hende Oosterhout

Jonathan Westbroeck

Johannis Westbroeck

Matheus Terwillige

Nicklas Low

Abra Low

Cornelius Low

Jacobus Low

Johannis Oosterhout

Jeremia Van Derkerke
Benja Hoornbeck
Dirck Hoornbeck
Peter Westbroeck
Tobias Hoornbeck
Jacobus Hoornbeck
Lowrence Cortreght
Mathew Cortreght
Peter Cortreght
Hendrick Cortreght
Johannis Ketor
Isaac Van Aken
Charles Danneson
Richard Kittle
Benja Rogge rs
Wessel Vernoy
Coenradt Vernoy
Michel Helm
Petrus Low
Lawies Bovier Ju’r
Cornelius Bovier
Samuel Bovier Ju’r
Jacob Bovier
Manuel Gonsalis Ju’r
Jacob Middagh
Abra Middagh
Isaac Middagh
Johannis Middagh
Janies Simson
Jacob Vandermarke
Geradus Van Inwegen
Benja Coddebeck
William Coddebeck
Abra Coddebeck
Peter Jemare

Totll 8i,

COLONIAL MILITARY ORGANIZATIONS.

103

A List of the Foot Company of Militia of the Pals (Paltz) Under

THE Command of Capt.

Capt Zacharias Hoffman
Lievt Benjamin Smedes Ju’r
Ensign Zacharias Hoffman Ju'r
Serj’s John Teer penning
Serj’s John Freer
Serj’s Evert Terwillege
Corpo Christian Dujo
Corpo Hendrick Deyo
Corpo Isaac Lefever
Isaac freer
Tuenis Terpening
Jan Une
Jonas freer
James Agmodi
Simon Lefever
Petrus Low
Johannis Low
Josia Elting
Abra Dujo
Cornelius Dubois
Jonathan Dubois
Josua Smedes
Gerett Ja; Decker
Stevanis Swart
John Robertse
Hendr Dubois
Mosis Dujo

Auguste Van Deermerke
Jacob Ge : Decker
James Pinnick
Daniel Winfiel
Manewel ter Willige
Johannes Terwillige
Hendrick Decker
Petrus Terwillige
Thoms Janson Ju’r
William Rosekrans
Corns Schoonmaker Ju’r
Corns Cool
Johannis Cool
Lewis Pontenere
Andrew Grames
Robert Greams
John Blake
James Jonston
Salamon Isrel
Samuel Sampson
Roger Blamles
Richard Davis
Lawrence Eldorp
Tomas Maccoun
John Andrew

Zacharias Hoffman.'-

Arie Terwillige
William Schoot
Cornelius bruyn
William Ja: Decker
Jacob Ja: Decker
Abra Ja: Decker
Isaac Ja : Decker
Benja Ja: Decker
Jacob He: Decker
Abra He : Decker
Abra Terwillige
Isaac Terwillige
Evert Terwillige Ju’r
Robert Cain
John Gream
William Weller
Hendrick Weller
Isaac Haasbroeck
Jacob Haasbroeck Ju’r
Benja Haasbroeck Ju’r
Zacharias Klarwater
Abra Bovier
Mathues Bovier
Jacobus Bovier
Isaac Bovier
Abra Lefever
Nathael Lefever
Benja Haasbroeck
Symon Dubois
Isaac Lefever Ju’r
Peter De : jo
Huge Freer Ju’r
Hendrick Van Wijak
Abra Vandermerke
Lewis Sa: Bovier
William Armstrong
Robert Jong
Mathew Jong
John Jemeson
Robert Hanne
John Magdonel

Johannes Masseker Totll 94.

104

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER^

A List of the Foot Company of Militia of the Presenk of tee

Highland Under the Command of Capt. Thos. Ellison.

Capt Thomas Ellison
Lievt George Harrison
Ensign John Young
Serjent David Davis
Serjent Patrick McCloghry
Serjent Mosas Garitson
Corpo Jacobus Bruyn Jur
Corpo James Stringham
Corpo Jonathan Hazard
Clark Charles Clinton

John Umphrey

Jphannis George

James Gamble

Jeremiah Tomkins

John Gamble

Isaac Tomkins

Cornelius McClean

William Watts

John Umphry Ju’r

Josiah Elsworth

James Umphry

James Elsworth

Peter Mulinder

Anthony Preslaer

Robert Burnet

Jonathan Tomkins

Archibald Beaty

John Nicoll Ju’r

Arthur Beaty

Alexander McKey

David Olliver

Robert Sparks

Mathew Davis

Jevriah Quick

Alexander Falls ^

Thomas Quick

Alexander Denniston

Jacob Gillis

James Young

Joseph Simson

David Bedford

James Clark

William Coleman

Peter Miller

Joseph Sweezer

George Waygant

Thomas Coleman

William Ward

John McVey

William Ward Ju’r

John Jones

John Mattys Kimbergh

Patrick Broderick

William Smith Ju’r

Joseph Shaw

James Edmeston

Calab Curtis

Tobias Waygate

William Sutten

Jerry Mause

Jeremiah Foster

Thomas Johnston

Charles Beaty

' Casparis Stymas

Amas Foster

John Monger

John Clark

James Luckey

Lodewick Miller

Thomas Williams

James Nealy

Robert Banker

Robert Feel

Thomas Fear

Joseph Butterton

Frederick Painter

Samuell Lukey

Mosas Elsworth

John Markham

John Marie

John Read

Jonathan Owens

Joseph McMikhill

Andrew McDowell

David Umphrey

Daniel Coleman

Tot 86

THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR.

105

! CHAPTER VII

THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR.

TO recount the connection of the people of Ulster County, through
their representatives, with the great events of the world’s history,
is one of the duties of the local historian. Unfortunately it is a
field of inquiry in which those of the present generation are not as a rule
well informed, and unfortunately, the pages of a local history arc too
limited for a general review of the politics and the wars of Europe
which affected the American Colonies. Substantially the first of the series
of events which culminated, in 1760, in the final overthrow of the occupa-
tion of Canada by the French and practically of the domination of France
on the North American continent, was what is known as the War of 1744,
which involved England, France, and Spain; the capture of Havana
and the West India Islands by England, the devastations by the French
and of the Indians along the northern frontiers of New England, and the
threatened invasion of the province of New York. True it is, as Bancroft
wrote, “the little conflicts in America are lost in the universal conflagra-
tion of Europe.”

It was not until 1746 that the province of New York began to make
preparations for engaging in the pending conflict; its territory had not
been invaded, thanks to the English alliance with the Six Nations, who,
under their treaty of peace with the Abenaqui and the tribes in its alliance,
held those nations to the line of the Housatonic, east of which the in-
vaders might slay and burn without their interfering with treaty obli-
gations, while on the west side farmers ploughed their fields in sight of the
blazing dwellings of their neighbors. By the indiscreet act of passing
the boundary line and capturing and burning Fort Massachusetts on the
border of New York, the warriors of the Six Nations were released from
their obligations and were ready for the fray — their territory had been
invaded. The success which had attended the colonial troops of Massa-
chusetts and Rhode Island in the capture of Louisburg, aroused the King
of England to further aggressive action. “His most gracious Majesty

io6

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

having been pleased to set on foot an expedition for the reduction of Can-
ada/* reads the act of the Colonial Assembly of July 5, 1746, authorizing
the expenditure of Forty Thousand Pounds “for carrying on an expedi-
tion against Canada,” and asking the enlistment of volunteers to whom a
bounty of six pounds each (about $14.40) was offered. Some enlist-
ments appear to have been made in New York prior to the passage of the
act, and some may have been made in Ulster. Of record only is the
roll in 1746, without date of day or month:

“Muster Rool of Capt. John Hasbrouck's
Company of Militia, Lieut. Col.

Johannes Hardenberg*s Regiment,

IN General Scott's Brigade, at
OR Near the White Plains:

Capt. John Hasbrouck, Present fit for duty.

Lieut. John Hunter,

Lieut. Jacobus Rosekrans, on command, with Col. Lasher.

Serg’t James Hugg, Present fit for duty.

Serg’t David Etkins “ “ “ “

Serg’t Joseph Chambers “ “ “ “

Corp’l Samuel Lewis “ “ “ “

Corp’l Jonathan Westbrouck “ “ “ “

Corp’l Johannis Rosa “ “ “ “

Private Stephen Nottingham “ “ “ “

Petrus Oosterhoudt “ “ “ “

James Robinson “ “ “ “

Isaac Newkirk, Discharged.

Pieter Mowris, Present fit for duty.

Daniel Johnson, “ " “ “

William Conner, “ “ “ "

Cornelius D. De Witt, “ “ “ “

Peter Hendrickson, on command with Col. Lasher.

Henry Harp, sick, present,

Henry Oosterhout, Present fit for duty.

Thomas Crispell “ “ ‘‘

Abraham Middaugh, Discharged,

John 1 Present fit for duty.

John Depuy “ “ “ “

Johannes Keyser, “ " “ “

Jacob Shaw Craft, “ “ “ “

Henry Kittle, ^ “

Cornelius Sluyter, sick, present,

Pieter Thompson, present fit for duty,

Jacob Harley “ “ “ “

Thomas Shurley, Discharged,

Cornelius Coneway, “

William Benson, Present fit for duty,

Ghysbert Vab Demerke, Discharged.

Thyrn Oosterhoudt, Present fit for duty.

James Termon, “ “ “ “

THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR.

107

John Sluyter, on command with Col. Lasher,

William Slujder, Present fit for duty,

James Phoenix, “ “ “ “

Frederick Hymes, “ ‘‘ “ “

Cornelius Krom, “ “ “ “

Loderick Selie, “ “ “ “

Gideon Dean, on command with Col. Lasher,

Pieter Frere, Discharged,

Benjamin Stanton, Present fit for duty,

Pieter Degarimo, sick, present,

Pieter Van Vlerke, Discharged,

William Wheeler, Unfit for duty
Hendrick Wessmiller, Unfit for duty,

James Malony, Present fit for duty,

Hendrick Krom, Absent with leave,

Hugy Lacy, Lister in the train of artillery,

John Jeffers, “ “ “ “ “ “

David Burns, “ “ “ “ “

John Crisby, “ “ “ “ “ “

Dirick Sluyter, Deceased,

John Hyneson.

It should not be inferred that this company included all the enlistments
from Ulster; it is simply the only return on file. This explanation will
also apply to lists at later periods.

Nothing more than a petty warfare followed the arrangements for the
reduction of Canada. Pending formidable aggressive movement in that
direction, the war was closed by the Treaty of Aix la Chapelle in 1748,
and the disbandment of the provincial forces followed in September of
that year.

But peace was of short continuance; the opposing interests of France
and England were inimical to peaceful relations; another factor was
the Indians. Briefly summarizing the situation: By the treaty of Aix la
Chapelle the “subjects of France, inhabitants of Canada,” were not to
“disturb or molest in any manner whatever” the Five Indian Nations
which were the “subjects of Great Britain,” nor the “other American
allies” of the government; the boundaries between the English and French
possessions, along the rivers St. Lawrence and Mississippi, were left
entirely undetermined, and no provision was made for the removal of the
fort, which the French had erected at Crown Point, on Lake Champlain,
and at Niagara. Securing from the Onondagas, Senecas, Cayugas, and
Oneidas the declaration that they were “independent tribes” and not the
“subjects of Great Britain,” the French resumed the policy of connecting
the St. Lawrence with the Gulf of Mexico by a chain of forts along that
river to Detroit and down the Ohio to the Mississippi. This policy was

io8

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

inimical to the interests of England; self-interest as well as self-defence
demanded that the construction of the forts should be anticipated if pos-
sible— if not, that their occupation by the French should be resisted.
Virginia organized what was known as the Ohio Company, for the osten-
sible purpose of securing the Ohio Valley, and gave patent to Christopher
Gist to make treaties with the Indians and select locations. The Senecas,
the Lenapes and the Shawanoes, whose territory was thus invaded by
the opposing civilizations, did not regard these movements with favor.
Looking over the situation the ruling Senaca chief remonstrated :
“Where,” he asked, “lie the lands of the Indians? The French claim all
on one side of the river, and the English all on the other.” He retired
dissatisfied. The French went on with their forts; Virginia demanded
that they give reason “for invading the British possessions” ; the French
commander knew no law but the orders of his general; the casus belli
which Virginia sought was supplied; war followed, and the campaign
and defeat of Braddock followed, but the end was not reached.

Meanwhile the Lenape, or Delawares, had some grievances to settle.
They had been defrauded of their lands by the famous “walking pur-
chase,” and by the purchasers of the Minisink lands who had made them
drunk and refused to pay them when they became sober. The Esopus
chiefs joined in the complaint as parties in interest; the borders of New
Jersey and New York, as well as the wildernesses of Pennsylvania, were
filled with the protestations of disfranchised proprietors; the Five Nations
gave them encouragement. No sooner had the frost reddened the maple
leaves and hardened the yellow com in the husk, than, with their allies,
painted black for war, in bands of two or four, they moved eastward and
the line of the Delaware and the Susquehanna bdcame the scene of the
carnival which they held with torch and tomahawk during many coming
months; the French and Indian War of 1754 was inaugurated, not to
cease so long as the flag of France waved in Canada; not to cease until
it was determined whether America should be Catholic or Protestant —
whether Catholic France or Protestant England should rule — the avant
courier of the American Revolution, the abolition of sectarian rule, the
enthronement of a nation that should know “no King but God.” It
practically terminated in 1760, September 5th, with the surrender of
Montreal to the English. On that day French power in Canada ceased,
although the formal treaty of peace and the cession of Canada to England

THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR.

109

was not concluded until the signing of the Treaty of Paris, February
i6th, 1763.

In local history the general history of the war has only incidental
place — its local events and the men who participated in them, principally
its militia, are properly the field of review. The French forces came not
upon the borders of the county — the invaders were the Lenape and their
allies who carried fire and tomahawk and made its southwestern frontiers
a weary burden. A paper endorsed “Observations on the State of Ulster
and Orange counties, sent to the General Assembly in March, 1756,”
presumed to have been written by Colonel Thomas Ellison, recites:
“The southern part of Ulster County, is in general a settled country, and
the settlements and improvements generally made by poor people. *
By the frequent and repeated incursions of the Indians on that part
of Pennsylvania adjoining to these counties, and afterwards on some
parts of these counties, the people have been kept in frequent and almost
perpetual alarm whereby the inhabitants have been in continued military
duty so as to be rendered incapable of taking care of their private affairs
for the support of their families, and the hardships attending these mili-
tary duties in watching and ranging the woods has been so great that the
people are distressed and almost worn out with fatigue. An extent of
country on the west side of the Wallkill of 15 miles in length and 7 or 8
in breadth is now abandoned by the inhabitants.*’ ♦ ♦ * Pqj. ^^e pro-

tection of the exposed frontier, Gov. Hardy, in the summer of 1757, had
block houses erected covering a distance of thirty miles, or from Mom-
baccus (Rochester) to Maghaghkamik, where they connected with the
block houses of New Jersey extending along the border of that province.
The block houses were garrisoned by detachments from the militia and
specially enlisted companies of which there is of record only one under
command of Capt. James Clinton.

The enrollment of the militia regiments, and of the companies of volun-
teers in the service of the Province during the war, is very imperfect.
In 1757, the regiment which had existed for many years was divided, and
two regiments constituted, the first under the command of Colonel Johan-
nis Hardenbergh, whose associate field officers are not of record so far as
ascertained, and the second under command of Colonel Thomas Ellison,
who has been met on the rolls of 1738 as Captain of the most southerly
company of the Ulster regiment of that period. Colonel Ellison’s (sec-

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

ond) regiment had for its field officers Charles Clinton, Lieutenant Col-
onel; Cadwallader Colden, Junr., Major, and Johannes Jansen, Adjutant,
and was composed of thirteen companies, commanded respectively by
Captains Johnathan Hasbrouck, Johannes Hardenbergh, Jr., Jacob New-
kirk, William Ellison, James McClaughry, Thomas Jansen, Cadwallader
C. Colden, Budewine Terpening, David Galatian, Moses Phillips, John
Wollay, and John Crage. The territory which it covered has not been
definitely ascertained, but from the names of officers of the regiment in
1772, it seems to have included the entire belt of country north of the
original county line as far as the line of New Paltz and west from the
Hudson to the Wallkill at Phillipsburgh. Colonel Hardenbergh’s first
regiment covered the remainder of the county. The headquarters of the
first was at Kingston; the headquarters of the second was at New Wind-
sor. It is doubtful if either regiment was at any time in the field en masse,
the nearest approach to that field service being in 1755, when both regi-
ments w'ere ordered out to reinforce Colonel (Sir) William Johnson in his
operations around Lake George and Fort William Henry, which will be
noticed later. The principal field service was in detachments and com-
panies of volunteers regularly organized, and of these the record is frag-
mentary and unsatisfactory, and that of the volunteer companies more or
less mixed. The earliest in the field seems to have been a company com-
manded by Captain Cornelius Van Buren — Jacob Rutzen De Witt, Lieu-
tenant; later Matthew Rea, Lieut. No list of this company appears of
record. Captain Richard Rea had a company recruited from Duchess and
Ulster, and Ebenezer Sealy, Jun’r, recruited one in southern Ulster, in
1758, of which James Clinton and Edward Erwin were Lieutenants. A
company under Captain Stephen Nottingham of Shawangunk — Henry
Jansen and Cornelius Wynkoop, Lieutenants— stand on the published
roll: “Mustered the 15th of April, 1758, by Charles Clinton, Esq.,

Lieutenant Colonel of one of the Battalions of said Province.” The roll
is as follows :

A Roll of Capt. Stephen Nottingham's Company Voluntarily Enlisted in His
Majesties Service in the Pay of the Province of New York & Mustered
THE 15TH OF April, 1758, by Charles Clinton Esqr. Lt. Colonel of One of
THE BaTALIONS OF SaID PROVINCE, WITH THE TiME OF ThEIR SEVERAL InLIST-
MENTS.

Captain. Serjeants

Stephen Nottingham Esq’r. Thom’s Nottingham

Lieutenants. Gerret Brodhead

Henry Jansen. Jacob Nottingham

Cornelius Wyncoop. John Johnson

THE

Corporals

Jacob Vandermark
Petrus Schoonmaker

Wilhelmus Mercle
Mortin Middagh Jun’r
John Dotey
John Keater
Dan’l McKinley
Petrus Clarewater
John Middagh
Mortin Krum
John Brodhead
Andries Davis
Luke Brodhead
Wm Ennist
Jacob Keater JunT
Gerardus Newkirk
Petrus Mercle
Isaac Roosa
Adam Huffman
Bruynus Vanderburgh
George Middagh JunT
Jacobus J. Bush
Abraham Keater
Nich’s Slouyter
Benj’n Mercle
Dirck Chambers
Andries Kyser
Arie Keater
Japhtha Slouyter
Rich’d Lounsberry
Benj’n Eakerley
Jam’s Alegar
Wm McConnell
Jacobus Turner
Johannis Ryder
Cornel’s Hardenbergh
Koonrad Burger
Johannis Hornbeak
John Mullen
Benj’n Curtright
Nath’l Curtright
John Van Vleet
Wm Hyn
Chrisse Davids
Casper Ruyter
Johannis Turner
Jacob Clyn

Egbert De Witt Jun’r
George Mack
Andries Rudolf
Petrus Vernoy
Garton De Witt
Christopher Medler

FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR.

Barnet Mercle
Drum’r.

George Webster
PRIVATES.

Joseph Martin
Jacob Vanderlinde
Lucas De Witt
Johannis Stroup
Petrus And. Vanlieuven
Peter Luyick Junr
John Ebberhard Gochnat
John Cane
Joseph Griffen
Roger Blameless
Mortha Bayard
Philip Schoonmaker
Joost Koonst
Philip Swart
Solomon Osterander
Stephanus Weest
Jacob S. Freer
Aaron Rice
Nath’l Bryant
Baltus Kiefor
Hendrictis Oosterhout
Benj’m Swart
Ezekiel De Witt
Petrus De Witt
Lucas Wyncoop
Johannis Sleight Jun’r
Jacobus Post
Hendricus Post
Hendricus Bedeker Jun’r
Barent Legg
Petrus Oosterhout
Coonrad Andries Tiel
Wm Shafe
Griffe Estel
Hendrick Beem
Peter Miller
Hermanns Dumont
Hugh Smith
Johannis Degraff
Wm Kiger
Jacobus Montanie
John Brede
Wilhelmus Chrispel
Garret Newkirk
Joseph Watkins
John Wheeler
Jacob Helm
Hendrick Clough
Petrus Schoonmaker
Jacob Sloughter
Martin Griffin

II2

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

Albertus Anthony
Philip Miller
William Mercle
John Bene way
Sam’l Wells Jun’r
John Herman
Wm Snyder
John De Witt Jun’r
Cornel’s Hendrikse
Petrus Post

John Vanderspagle
Rich’s Brodhead
N. B.

John Johnson Serjt
John Dotey
Hendrick Beem
Johannis Degraff
Petrus Post &
Richard Brodhead

These were enlisted & sworn but not mustered.

A List of the Men's Names Inlisted by Stephen Nottingham
Out of the First Regiment in Ulster County, (1758).

Carton DeWitt

Benjamin Ekly

Andreas Rudolf

Jacobus Turner

Egbert Dewitt Jun’r

Johannes Kidder

Petrus Vanoy

Petrus Schoonmaker

George Mack

Cornelius Hardenbergh

George Webster Drumer

Cunerate Burger

Wilhelmus Marker

Johannes Hornbeek

Martha Midagh

John Mullen

Jacon Vandermark

Benjamin Kortraght

John Keter

Gerardus Newkirk

Barant Markle

Petrus Markle

Daniel McKinley

Isaac Roose

Petrus Clarewater

Casper Ryter

John Middagh

Johannes Turner

Jacob Notingham Serjeant

William Heyne

Martin Crum

Nathanael Courtraight

John Broadhead

William McConner Clarke

Andreas Davis

Phillip Scoonmakex

Luke Broadhead

Joest Konnet

William Ennis Jun’r

Phillip Swart

Jacob Keter Jun’r

Solomon Ostrander

Adam Hoffman

Stephanus Wist

Bruyness Vanderbergh

Jacob Freer

George Middagh Jun’r

Aaron Rice

Jacobus Hanneste Boss

Peter Vanlooven Jun’r

Richard Loonsberry Jun’r

Nathanael Bryan

Abraham Keter Jun’r

James Alliger

Nicholas Slouter Jun’r

Cunerate Andreas Steel

Benjamin Markle

William Sheaff

Dirck Chambers

Petrus Ostrout

Thomas Notingham Serjeant

Griffith Asstith

Andreus Kyser

Belta Kisser

Jesta Slouter

Henrikus Osterout

Benjamin Swart

Petrus Dewitt

John Vanfleet

Lukeas Wynkoop

Jacob Klyne

Jacobus Post

Christopher Davis

Henricus Post

Petrus Andreas Van leven

Henricus Rediker

Peter Luiks Jun’r

Barant Legg

Christopher Midler

Johannes Strope

The Lewis TiMishvig Co.

THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR.

113

Albertus Antony
Phillip Miller
William Markle
John Beneway
Samuel Wells JunT
John Harman
William Snyder
John Dewitt Jun’r
Cornelius HendrickSc
Joseph Martin
Jacob Vandelinder
Lukeas Dewitt
John Eberhard Gohnat
Peter Miller
Hermanns Dumont
Hugh Smith
William Keyger
John Kain
Joseph Griffin
Ezekiel Dewitt

Johannes Wheller
Jacob Holm
Henrick Plugh

Petrus Johannes Schoonmaker

Jacob Slouter

Roger Blameless

Martha Byard

Johannis Sleight Jun’r

Jacobus Montany

John Brady

Wilhelmus Crespel

Gerret Newkirk

Joseph Atkins

John Vanderspegle

Abraham Post

Martynas Griffin

Arw Terwilliger

Aari Keter

P. CHAR. CLINTON.

John Doughty lying in the Small pox
John Johnson did not attend

These men are not mustered.*

This Company with that recruited by Captain Sealy and James Clinton,
is presumed to have been in Lieutenant Charles Clinton’s Brigade under
General Bradstreet for the reduction of Fort Frontenac on the St. Law-
rence. The expedition, it may be noted here, was successful. The fort
was one of the strongest fortresses in America. It was taken by sur-
prise, and with it came to the Provincial forces nine armed vessels, forty
pieces of cannon and a large quantity of provisions and stores. George
Clinton, son of Lieut. Col. Charles Clinton, accompanied his father on
the expedition, and in 1777, became the first Governor of the State under
the Constitution.

In 1760 James Clinton raised a company in southern Ulster, of which
George Clinton and Isaiah Purdy were Lieutenants. In 1761 he recruited
another company, of which William Stewart and Hendrick Johannes
Sleght were Lieutenants. In 1762, he recruited another — Lieutenants
William Stewart, Alexander Denniston, Mathew Smedes and John Mc-
Neal. The endorsement on the roll of this company reads: “For guarding
the western frontier of Ulster and Orange Counties,” in which service
Clinton’s previously recruited companies were engaged. The muster rolls
are very complete in descriptive lists — where born, age, height, color of

* The last five.

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

114

hair and eyes, and give the reader a pretty correct idea of “what manner
of men” composed the militia. The enlistments were in each case for
one year. The men were clearly from Colonel Ellison’s second Ulster
regiment. They cannot be eliminated from the history of Ulster County
by the new county line of 1798 without perpetrating a gross injustice.
Ulster, the mother county, borrows nothing from her sons; she takes
that which belongs to her history. In 1774 Colonel Ellison divided his
regiment in two battalions, the first of which was placed under the
command of James Clinton, whose next appearance will be in the forces
raised in his native county for the war for National Independence.

Turning back to 1755, when the Ulster regiments were called out to re-
inforce Colonel (later Sir) William Johnson at Lake George, a statement
written by Colonel Ellison shows that the first regiment had transporta-
tion by sloop from Kingston, and the second by sloop from New Windsor
to Albany. From Albany to Fort Edward the men marched on the west
side of the Hudson, carried their equipments and provisions, waded
through creeks “crotch deep,” and camped “opposite Fort Edward,” i. e.
on the west side of the Hudson, were ordered “to go voluntarily”
to the attack of a force of the enemy lying between Fort Edward and
Fort William Henry. In less than an hour the whole force “waded
through Hudson’s River to Fort Edward.” “The last of the militia had
not got well through the river before the attempt was thought too hazard-
ous, whereupon we were ordered immediately back to our camp,” wrote
Colonel Ellison in his narrative. After remaining in camp five days,
and learning that the French “were destroying Fort William Henry,” the
regiments returned to their homes, and were criticised for so doing.
Except in the alacrity with which they had hastened to the field of duty,
it was not a “glorious campaign.” The “retreat,” if so it may be called,
was justified on the ground of the necessity for protecting their own
homes.

Leaving the local events of the war to the historians of the towns in
which those events occurred, and referring to the report of the State His-
torian, 1896, Colonial Series, for such muster rolls of the Ulster militia
as are in the archives of the State, we throw the view forward to the
threshold of the war for Independence in the annexed list of officers, and
of two companies of privates in the Second Ulster Regiment in 1773,
compiled from original manuscripts found among Colonel Ellison’s

THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR.

115

papers, now in Washington’s Headquarters, never before printed or pub-
lished. The list is as follows :

To Sir William Johnson, BarT Maj"r General of the Militia of the North-
ern Department of the Province of New York:

“In obedience to your General Order of ye i6th of July, 1773, you have here un^
derneath the return of the Second Regiment of the Militia of the County of Ulster,
whereof

Thomas Ellison, Coll.

Charles Clinton, Lieut. Coll.

Cadwallader Colden, Junior, Major.

Johannes Jansen, Adjutant.

1. Jonathan Hasbrouck, Capt. ; Samuel Sands, ist Lieut; Wolver Actor, 2nd
Lieut.; Cornelius Hasbrouck, Ensign — 4 Sergts., 4 Corporals, i Drummer, 141 men.

2. Johannes Hardenbergh, Junr., Captain; Jacobus Rose, ist Lieut; Com’ls
Maston, 2d Lieut.; Jonathan Hardenbergh, Ensign — 4 Sergts., 3 Corp’s, i Drum-
mer, loi men.

3. Jacob Newkerck, Captain; Matthew Fetter, ist Lieut. ; Hendrick Smith 2d
Lieut; Johannes Newkirk, Ensign — 4 Sergt’s, 4 Corporals, i Drummer, 69 men.

4. William Ellison, Captain; Judah Harlow, ist Lieut; John Nicolls, 2d Lieut;
Francis Mandeville, Ensign — 4 Sergt’s, 4 Corpl’s, i Drummer, 70 men.

5. Thomas Bull, Captain; Samuel Watkens, ist Lieut; William Booth, 2d Lieut;
Stephen Harlow, Ensign — 4 Sergt’s, 4 Corpl’s, i Drummer — 63 men.

6. James McClaughry, Captain; James Humphrey, ist Lieut; Joseph Belknap,
2d Lieut.; James Burnet, Ensign — 4 Sergt’s, 4 Corporals, i Drummer, 160 men.

7. Thomas Jansen, Captain; Matthew Jansen, ist Lieut; Abraham Smedes, Sen.,
2d Lieut; Severyn F. Bruyn, Ensign — 4 Sergt’s, 4 Corporals, i Drummer, 73 men.

8. Cadwallader C. Colden, Capt; Thomas Colden, ist Lieut; James Milliken,
2d Lieut. ; Mathew Hunter, Ensign — 4 Sergt’s, 4 Corpl’s, i Drummer, 100 men.

9. Budewine Terpening, Captain; Elisha Freir, ist Lieut; Jonathan Ostrander,
2d Lieut; John Everitt, Ensign — 4 Sergt’s, 4 Corporals, i Drummer, 59 men.

10. David Galatian, Captain; Curdrow Graham, ist Lieut; Peter Hill, 2d Lieut.;
Jacob Bodine, Ensign — 4 Serb’s, 4 Corpl’s, i Drummer, 67 men.

11. Moses Phillips, Captain; William Dirr (?), ist Lieut; Elijah Beaver, 2d
Lieut.; David Mores, Ensign — 4 Sergt’s, 4 Corpl’s, i Drummer, 70 men.

12. John Wollay, Captain; Latting Carpenter, ist Lieut; Humphrey Merrit, 2d
Lieut.; Joseph Murry, Ensign — 4 Sergt’s, 4 Corpl’s, i Drummer, 107 men.

13. Joseph Crage, Captain; William Sinnall (?), ist Lieut; John Graham, 2d
Lieut.; John T. Graham, Ensign— 4 Sergt’s, i Drummer, 102 men.

The total strength of companies is given in uncertain figures in some instances.
The total strength of the regiment is placed at 1350 men, 64 Sergeants, 53 Corpo-
rals, and 15 Drummers. John Wollay’s company was surely a Marlborough or-
ganization. Thomas Bull’s company was surely Captain William Faulkner’s com-
pany in 1772, of which Thomas Bull was then ist Lieutenant. Captain Faulkner
returned 243 men. It was surely in the old Precinct of Wallkill on the west side„
with western and northern limits undefined.

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

List of All the Rank and File Men Within the Precinct of
Shawangunk, on the East Side of the Wallkill, Belonging to
THE Company of Militia Whereof Johannes Hardenberg^ Jun'r,
IS Captain, Within the Second Regiment of the County of
Ulster, as Follows:

Jacobus Roos, ist Sergt.
Corns. Masten, 2d Sergt.
Teunus Terpening, 3d Sergt.
Corns. Rant, ist Corp.

John Slaughter, 2d Corp.
Jonathan Dowel,

Will’m Dowel,

Alex’r Dowel,

Jonathan Hardenbergh,
Andries Dubois,

Justus Banks,

James Oliver, ,

Zacharias Terwilliger,

Alex’d Colter,

Jacob Ostrander,

Helmus Ostrander
Corns. Vernoy
Petrus Terwilliger,

Benj’n Terwilliger, Jun'r,
Petrus Terwilliger, Jun’r,
Jacobus Terwilliger,
Abraham Bevier,

Jonathan Campble,

Moses Bull,

Samuel Hegger,

James Harding,

Paulus Butten,

John Varliman,

John Stienbergh,

Mathewis Stienbergh,
Abrah’m Stienbergh,

John A. Roos,

Isaac Hannion, JunT,

Joel Cample,

Solomon Terwilliger,

Tennis Terwilliger,

Isaac Slaughter,

John Slaughter, Jun’r,
Jacob Terwilliger, Jun’r,
Benj’m Van Keuren,
Corn’s S. Terwilliger,
Arry Terwilliger,

Will’m Erwin,

George Erwin,

John Erwin,

Samuel Erwin, Jun’r,
Simon Alsdorph,

Ezekiel Masten,

Art Masten,

Zachari Vandemarke,
Helmus Vandemarke,
Job’s Wilier,

Dunkan McMollin,

John McMillin,

Embros Jones,

John Carnaran,

Job’s Alsdorph,

Jonathan Bevier,
Mathewis Masten,

Jon’s Rank,

Phillip Rank,

Lowrance Rank,
Jeremiah Johnston,
Ebenezer Brown,
Hendricus Terpening,
Petrus A. Roos,

Daniel Hogain,

Will’m Lewis,

John Lewis,

Myndert Newkerk, — 70.

Whereas my two Lieutenants, at our last meeting nave both resigned their
commissions, I would beg Ipve to have the following gents returned as Officers
in their room to serve as Lieut’s, and also an Ensign in the room of Erwin, who
is absent — as follows: Jacob Roos, Ju’r, ist Lieut., in the room of Lieut. Van
Keuren; Cornelius Masten, 2d Lieut., in the room of Lieut. Kain; Jonathan Har-
denbergh, Ensign, in the room of Edward Erwin.

All from your Humble Serv’t,

JoH^s Hardenbergh, Ju^r.

•177, August 24th.

To Col. Tho’s Ellison.

THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR.

117

‘*A List of a Company of Foot Militia Commanded by Cap’n Wil-
liam Faulkner, Taken the 13TH Day of July, 1772.

Capt. William Faulkner,

Robert Osburn,

Thomas Bull, I Lieuts

Wm. Couples,

Daniel Butterfield f

John Butters,

James Crawford, Ensign,

John Mingos,

David Crawford,

Jonathan Jourdan,

John Faulkner, Lsero-ts

Robert Dougherty,

David Moore, pergts.

Hugh Dougherty,

Moses Phillips J,

Phillam Muckelvaney,

George McNish, Ju’r,

Daniel Teers,

Clarke McNish,

Johanas Crance,

David Corwin,

John McHenry,

David Corwin, Jr.

Daniel McHenery,

Samuel Wybrant,

Samuel Willsson,

John Brown,

Pearce Mansfield,

Archibald Brown,

John Gilcreest,

Isaiah Veal,

Wm. Quiggey,

Obadiah Veal,

Benjamin Bennett,

Thos. McWhorter,

James Finch,

John Cox,

Joseph Finch,

Jeremiah Cox,

Henry Mapes,

Jacob Myers,

Jinks Corey,

John Hill,

Timothy Skinner,

Waight Carpenter,

John Gillett,

Mathew Smith,

John Yeomans,

Stephen Smith,

Samuel Davis,

Henry Smith,

Luke Carter,

Israel Smith,

Zeporon Cobb,

Daniel Smith,

Eliakim Brown,

Nathaniel Owen.

Nathan Howell,

Jonathan Owen,

Jonathan Corey,

Casper Ritter,

Archibald McCurdy, Jr.,

John Green,

Thomas Ager,

John Green, Jr.,

Joseph Sayre,

Ebenezer Green,

James Rogers, Jr.,

Thomas Denn,

Edward Campbell,

Daniel Denn,

Peter Cavanaugh,

John Conkling, Jr,,

Daniel McVey,

Jacob Harrison,

Samuel Dunning,

George Murry, ,

James Morrison,

Wright Peterson,

Daniel McNeal

Assa Cobb,

Thos. Johnston,

Joseph Cobb, ;

George Embler,

William Cooley, .

Samuel Marvain,

Elijah Reeve,

Daniel Wood,

Elijah Reeve, Jr.,

Art. Yerks,

Elijah Seely, . . -

Neal McLaughlin

Abraham Taylor, ' . '

John McGowan,

William Gilbert,

Phillip Crist,

Solomon Wheat,

Thos. Neely, Jr.,

Simeon Mash, i - '

Wm. Bbdle,

Thomas Mash, Jr., |

Moses Strain,

Timothy Coleman, i

Archibald Scott,

ii8

THE COUNTY' OF ULSTER.

David Smith, Jr.,

Joseph Smith,

John Daily, Jun'r,

Robert Burnett,

Wm. Rippe,

Stacey Beeks,

Phillip Ketcham,

Assa Brown,

Assa Brown, Jr.,

Thomas Lake,

John Connor,

Abel Wells,

Daniel Decker,

Isaac Decker,

Nathaniel Wells,

Reeves Cox,

Israel Wickam,

Mathew Wickam,

Isaac Smith,

Wm. Stubs,

David Stubs,

Samuel Stubs,

John Ludlum,

Archibald McEntire
William Wickam,

Tilton Eastman,

Benjamin Doughty,

Ephraim Everett,

Michael Rood,

Daniel Wollen,

Elihu Carey,

George Smith,

James Springsted,

Jonathan Webb,

Jonathan Webb, Jr.
Benjamin Veal,

Abraham Stanton,

Rufus Stanton,

Amos Parke,

Ebenezer Parke,

Abner Skinner,

Abiel Worden,

David Sprague„

Richard Johnston,

Andrew McCord,

John Willkins,

Wm. Willkin, Jr.,

John Faulkner,

Wm. Faulkner,

Robert Faulkner,

William Bull,

William Faulkner (Mason),
William Faulkner,

Samuel Faulkner,

John Patterson,

Henry Patterson,

Patrick Bodle,

Jacob Crance,

John Booth,

Thos. Carscaddan,
Jas. Carscaddan,
John Tuthill,

John Murry,

Alex. McVey,
Ephraim Watkins,
Hezekiah Watkins,
Samuel Watkins,
John McNeal,

Sami. Rogers,
Solomon Rogers,
John Booth, Jur.,
Stephen Harlow,
John McGarrah,
Pelethia Pierce,
Benjamin Booth,
Wm. Booth,

Wm. Forsythe,
Francis Burns,
Charles Finley,
David Moore,
Absalom Bull,
Ephraim McCoy,

Jas. Colwell,

Robt. Simerill,
Phillip Shay,

John Monnell, Jur.,
Anderson Deane,
Wm. Wire,

Thos. Curtice,
Benejah Curtice,
Edward Hopper,
Solomon Thompson,
David Booth,

Moses Clarke,

Israel Rogers, Jr.,
Robert Rogers,

James Wilkins,
Samuel Oliver,
James McCord,

John McCord,

David Daily,
Benjamin Daily,
Alexander Pray,
Wm. Morrison,

Wm. Smith,

Samuel Stubs,
Samuel Umphry,
Mathew Dillon,
James McVey,
Andrew Embler,
James Monell,
Samuel Wetherlow,

Lake Mohonk.

THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR. 119

James McClure,
James Rogers,
John Jourdon,
Henry Marshall,
Henry Savage,
Adam Hoslander,
John Sweet,

John Moore,

John Thompson,

Samuel ?

Ephraim ?

Samuel Dowc,

John Zates,
Jonathan Jourdan,
Thomas Peck,— -243.

The enlistments in the regular English regiments, of which there
were many, is a field of inquiry that cannot be entered upon.

120

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

CHAPTER VIII.

MEN OF ULSTER IN THE REVOLUTION.

The history of the men of Ulster “and what they did’' in the war for
National Independence is eminently a history of toils, privations
and exposures to the contingencies of savage warfare and conten-
tions with domestic and foreign enemies. In no portion of the State, except
in the Mohawk Valley, did the burden of the war press more heavily, and
in no portion was it borne with more unflinching determination. In our
general histories — in the histories which form the text books in our
schools in which our children are made familiar to some extent with
Revolutionary events — full justice has never been paid to the people
of the valley of Hudson’s River, the view is invariably from the Boston
standpoint of events, as though the “Sons of Liberty” of New York
and Philadelphia, and Virginia were not as earnestly engaged in the
contention of taxation without representation as were the people of
Massachusetts. While we may remember that the first gun fired between
the Provincials and the forces of the British Ministry was heard at Lex-
ington, and Concord, and gave to our national history the stories of
Bunker’s Hill and the Boston Tea Party, it should not be forgotten that
opposition to the taxation of the Colonies was as pronounced in New
York as it was in Boston. Tea was not thrown overboard in New York
Harbor, but ships cargoed with it were sent back; the statue of George
III. was overthrown, and Governor Colden burned in effigy. The
locally interesting fact may be added to the popular narrative that the
most fearless leader of the Boston “Mohawks” — the man who shouted
in Faneuil Hall, “Overboard with the tea !” was a son of Ulster County —
Dr. Thomas Young — the playmate of James and George Clinton, who
drew his inspiration with them from the same fountain, and subscribed
with them the great principle, . “Eternal hostility against every form of
tyranny over the mind of man.”

The war of the Revolution was the outgrowth directly of the French
and Indian war which closed in 1763. The Ministry — “the Mother

MEN OF ULSTER IN THE REVOLUTION.

I2I

Country” about which we hear so much in commendation in anti-Repub-
lican circles — demanded that the people of the Colonies should be taxed to
defray, in part at least, the expenses of that war. To this end they im-
posed a tariff tax on teas imported by the Colonists, and failing in that
followed with a tax payable by stamps on all legal papers, denied to
the Colonists the privilege of manufacturing the goods which they might
require, and quartered on the people large bodies of men to enforce
their edicts. The Colonists remonstrated, and demanded that there should
be no tax levied without representation. When the collisions with the
Government occurred in Massachusetts, the sentiment of the people was
voiced by Henry in the Virginia House of Burgesses, “Our chains are
being forged; their clanking may be heard in the streets of Boston. I
know not what others may do, but for myself give me liberty or give me
death !” The effect was electric. “To arms ! to arms !” rang through the
colonies. Had not this spirit been aroused the collisions in Massachusetts
would probably have passed into history as incidents of a heated dis-
cussion of public affairs. The people of New York, however, were
eminently conservative and hopeful of a peaceful solution of the pending
controversy, though not the less earnest in their convictions. The
“Sons of Liberty” of New York City formed and sent out to the
towns “Articles of Association” advising the appointment of “Com-
mittees of Safety and Observation.” The towns responded with great
promptness. The committees were formed, and the “Articles of Associa-
tion” signed with great unanimity. The New York Association then
invited a meeting of delegates from the counties of the Province to se'-ve
in Provincial Convention to assemble in New York April 20, 1775. The
local committees of Safety forrhing a County Committee, met at New
Paltz April 7th, and appointed Charles De Witt, George Clinton, and
Levi Pawling as delegates from Ulster. This Provincial organization of
the State Government of New York — ^the “rebel” Provincial govern-
ment— held the reins of State, in successive assemblings, until the
adoption of the State Constitution in 1777, a document that came from its
hands. At the meeting of the convention in New York delegates were
appointed to represent the Province of New York in a “General Con-
gress,” substantially the first Continental Congress, at Philadelphia, May
loth, 1775. The delegates were John Alsop, Simon Boerum, George
Clinton, James Duane, William Floyd, John Jay, Francis Lewis, Philio

122

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

Livingston, Robert R. Livingston, Col. Lewis Morris, Col. Philip Schuy-
ler, and Henry Wisner, a majority of those present at any session of the
Congress being empowered to cast “the vote of the State” on any ques-
tion under such “instructions” as should be given to them by the
Provincial Convention of New York. To these “instructions” is due the
fact that the vote of New York was not cast for the Declaration of Inde-
pendence until July 9th, 1776, and the “immortal document” signed by
only four of the representatives of New York. The steps to the formation
of “a government of the people by the people, and for the people,” were
thus participated in by the people of Ulster at every stage of their prog-
ress— the Associations, the Committees of Safety, the Provincial, and the
Continental Congresses.

The immediate subject for notice in connection with the facts which
have thus been briefly summarized is the signers to the “Articles of
Association” — the “Revolutionary Pledge,” as it is sometimes called.
While accepted to-day as prima facia evidence of the standing of the men
who wrought in the ranks of “the Men of the Revolution” and while in
most cases they were entitled to that rank in their subsequent action, the
“Pledge” had no reference to an appeal to arms and separation from the
English government. Leading up to that result they probably did, but
their primary purpose was to bring the people up to the point of asso-
ciated effort to secure a redress of the grievances of which they com-
plained, and which were so powerfully given by Jefferson in the Declara-
tion of Independence. The “Pledge” itself reads : “Until a reconciliation
between Great Britain and America can be obtained,” and in point is
the fact that in the first meeting of the Ulster committees at New Paltz
the Deputies appointed to the Provincial Convention were instructed to
“move” in that body the appointment of a day “for public Fasting and
Prayer to implore Divine aid in restoring a happy reconciliation between
the Mother Country and her American Colonies.” When the line came
to be drawn “for” and “against” an effort for National Independence,
many good men who had stood up for redress fell back — society was
more or less divided, families were divided, churches were divided — men
who stood high in the respect of the communities in which they lived, but
who from personal attachments or official or religious connections were
opposed to separation from the “Mother Country,” became “Loyal Ameri-
cans” in the field, while many of their followers became marauders and

MEN OF ULSTER IN THE REVOLUTION.

123

murderers. To the memory of those of the signers who stood firmly
together in the struggle, as shown by their action in council and in camp,
we bow our heads in reverence.

The signers to the ‘‘Articles of Association'* were:

KINGSTON.

John Allen
David Achmudy
Pierre Ancton

Petrus Bogardus
Nicholas Bogardus
Richard Burhans
Cornelius Burhans
Barent Burhans
John J. Burhans
Samuel Burhans
Jacob Burhans
Jacobus Besimer
Adam Bear
Tjerck Beekman
Cornelis Beekman
Jacob Backer
Petrus Backker
John Brinck Jr.
Cornelis J. Brink
Jacob Brink
Francis Bedan
Abner Brush
Nicholas Britt
Peter Britt

Moses Cantine Jr.
Cornelis Conway Jr.
Joseph Chip
Elisha Clark
David Cox
Wendell Crimer
Johannis Carter
George Calle

Jeremiah Dubois
Samuel Dubois
Hezekiah Dubois
Johannis N. Dubois
Johannis Dubois
David Dubois
Lucas Dewitt
Tjerck C. Dewitt
Andries Dewitt Jr.
Petrus Dewitt
Arie Dewitt

James Allen
John Addison

Captain Evert Bogardus
Petrus Bogardus, Jr.
Isaac Burhans
John Burhans
Samuel Burhans
Edward Burhans
Jan Burhans
Petrus Burhans
Johannis Besemer
Juren Bear
Jacobus S. Bruyn
John Beekman
Johannis Backer
Hendrick Backer
John Brink
Petrus Brinck
Cornelis C. Brink
Petrus C. Brink
Johan Michel Berger
Johannis Beyman
Hendrick Britt

Moses Cantine
William Coleman
Michael Connolly
John Chipp
John Carman
William Austin Cox
Seth Curtis
Jacob Conyers

Joshua Dubois
Jacobus Dubois
William Dubois
Hezekiah Dubois Jr.
Jacobus Dubois
Johannis J. Dubois
Charles Doyl
Jan Dewitt
Johannis Dewitt Jr.

Jans Dewitt
Carnelis D. Dewitt

124

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

KINGSTON. — Continued.

John Davenport
Sampson Davis
Peter Dumond
John Dumond
Jacobus Dumond
John P. Dumond
Hendricus Degracf
Jurrie W. Dederick
William Dederick Jr.
Johannis Dederick
Abraham Dederick
John Delamater
Abraham Delametter Jr.
David Delametter
John Durnare
Jeremiah Demyer

Petrus Elsworth
Frederick Eygenaer
Jacob Eygenaer
Petrus Eygenaer
Peter Eyganaer
John Elmendorph
Petrus Elmendorph
Benjamin Elmendorph
Abraham Elmendorph
Petrus Elmendorph
Cornells Elmendorph Jr.

Gerritt Elmendorph
Ariegiertsie Elmendorf
Coenraedt Cornells Elmendorph
Jonathan Elmendorph
Johannis Emerigh
William Eltinge Jr
Hendricus Eltinge
Solomon Eckert Jr.

John Ellis

Christian Fiero
Stephanus Fiero
Hendrick P. Freligh
Samuel Freligh
Johannis Freer
Solomon Freer
John Freer
Gerrett Freer
Samuel Freer
Peter Felton
Jacob Felton
Petrus Felton
John Fender
Jacob Frans

William Davenport
Abraham Davenport
Cornells Dumond
Peter Dumond Jr.

John Dumond Jr.

Philip Dumond
Egbert Dumond
Johannis Degraef
Jacobus Dederick
Matthew Dederick
Myndert Dederick
Gysbert Dederick
Abraham J. Delametter
Benjamin Delametter
Abraham C’s, Delametter
Benjamin Demeyer
Christiaen Dull

William Elsworth

William Eygenaer

Johannis Eygenaer

Cornelius Eygenaer

William Evens

Coenradt C. Elmendorph

Cornells Elmendorph

Jan Elmendorph

Jacobus Elmendorph

Coenradt Jan Elmendorph

Jacobus Elmendorph

Coenraedt G. Elmendorph

Gerrett Coenraedt Elmendorph

Coenraedt Jacobus Elmendorph

Wilhelmus Emerigh

William Eltinge

Thomas Eltinge

Jacobus Eltinge

Michel Eenhart

Christian Fiero Jr.
Hendrick Fiero
Peter Freligh
John Freligh
Abraham Freer
Solomon Freer Jr.
Jacob Freer
Anthony Freer
Jan Freer
Johannis Felton
Benjamin Felton
Johannis Felton Jr.
James Foran
Jacob Frans Jr.

Col. Jacobus Severyn Bruyn.

MEN OF ULSTER IN THE REVOLUTION.

125

KINGSTON. — Continued.

Jacob Marius Groen

Jacob Marius Groen Jr.

Jeronymus Gerrensy

James Gregg

Charles Gyles

Joseph Gasherie
William Marius Groen

Daniel Graham

Silvester Marius Groen

Peter Marius Groen

Elias Hasbrouck

Abraham A. Hasbrouck

Solomon Hasbrouck

Colonel Abraham Hasbrouck

Abraham Hasbrouck Jr.

Martyanus Hummell

Jerrie Hummell Jr.

Hermans Hummell

Peter Hummell

Johannis J. Hummell

Jacob Hendrickse

Jacob Hendrickse, son of Frans,

Johannis Hendrickse

Phillip Hendrickse

Abraham Hoffman

Anthony Hoffman

Anthony A. Hoffman

John Hoghteling

Wilhelmus X. Hoghteling

Thomas Hoghteling

Tunis Hoghteling

Wilhelmus Hoghteling

Wilhelmus W. Hoghteling

Jeremiah Hoghteling

Jacob Heermanse

John Hermans

Abraham Hermanse

Peter Hodler

Michel Hoof
Jacob L. Hornbeck

Michel Human

James Jones

Johannis J. Jansen

Matthias Jansen

Cornelis Jansen Jr.

Johannis Jansen
Henry Jansen

Ephraim Jansen

Jeremiah Klaarwater

Coenradt Krook

Martha Krock

Lawrence Kiever

Baltus Kiever

William Kiever

Johannis Kroce

Wilhelmus Kierstaede

Luke Kierstaede

Nicholas Kierstaede

Christoffel Kierstaede
Jacob Kline

John Kallon

Daniel Lucas

John L. Low

Peter Low

Benjamin Low

Abraham C. Low

John Low

Abraham E. Low

Jacobus Low

Abraham Low

Abraham Low Jr.

Cornelis Langendijct

Luyker Langendijct

William Legg

Samuel Legg

George Lassing

William Litts

Dederick Materstock

Adam Materstock

Jacob Materstock

William Materstock

Johannis Materstock

Jacobus Montanie

Benj amin Masten

Ezekel Masten

Johannis C. Masten

Johannes B. Masten

Cornelius B, Masten

Samuel Masten

Johannis Masten

Cornelis Masten

Abraham Masten

Benjamin Masten Jr.

Abraham Masten Jr.

Henry Masten

Cornelis Masten

Andrew McFarland

Jesaias Meyer

Benjamin Meyer

126

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

KINGSTON. — Continued.

Benjamin Meyer Jr.

Christian Meyer
Petrus Meyer
Petrus Meyer Jr.

Samuel Meyer
William J. Meyer
Tobias Meyer
Stephanus Meyer
Jacob Mowers
Petrus Mowers
Nicholas Mowers
Nicholas Miller
John Monk
Myndert Mynderse
John McKarty
Robert Montgomery

Arie Newkirk
Charles Newkirk

Jan L. Osterhoudt
John C. Osterhoudt
Hendrickus Osterhoudt
William Osterhoudt
James Osterhoudt
Petrus L. Osterhoudt
James P. Osterhoudt

Cornells Persen
Jacobus Persen
Matthew Persen
James Pickken
Abraham Post
Cornells Post
Jacobus Post
Isaak Post
William Phoenix

Peter Roggen
Jurrie W. Richtmeyer
Lodewick Roessell

Hendrick Snyder
Benjamin Snyder
Isaac Snyder
Martijnus Snyder Jr.

Petrus Snyder

Egbert Schoonmaker

Edward Schoonmaker

Hendricus Schoonmaker son of Tjerck

Edward Schoonmaker

David Schoonmaker

Hezekiah Schoonmaker

Cornells Swart

Hendricus Meyer
William Meyer
Johannis Meyer Jr.
Petrus Low Meyer
Tobias Meyer
Johannis Meyer Jr.
Tunis Meyer
Peter J. Meyer
Johannis Mowers Jr.
Leonard Mowers
Johannis Miller
Christophel Miller
Harmon Minkelaer
John McKinney
John McLean

Jacobus Newkirk
Cornelis A. Newkirk

Abraham Osterhoudt
Petrus P. Osterhoudt Jr.
Samuel Osterhoudt
Hendrickus Osterhoudt Jr.
Benjamin Osterhoudt
Joseph Osterhoudt
Petrus Osterhoudt

Johannis Persen
John J. Persen
Adam Persen
Jacob Pulver
Jacobus Post
Martynus Post
Jan Post
Hendrick Post
Jeremiah Parcell

Frantz P. Roggen
John Row Sr.

Martha Snyder
Abraham Snyder
Jeremiah Snyder
Johannis M. Snyder
Johannis Snyder
Peter Schoonmaker
Samuel Schoonmaker
Hezekiah Dubois Schoonmaker
Hendrick Schoonmaker
Tjerck Schoonmaker
Tjerck Schoonmaker Jr.

John E. Schoonmaker
Cornelius L. Swart

MEN OF ULSTER IN THE REVOLUTION.

127

KINGSTON.—

Benjamin Swart
Samuel Swart
Petrus Swart
Tobias Swart
Lawrence Saulisbury
Augustinus Shoe
William Sawyer
Solomon Skutt Jr.

William Schepmoes
Oke Sudam
John Sparling
Alabartus Schryven
Stephanus Schryven
John Smedes
Petrus Smedes Jr.

Benjamin Sleght
Hendricus Slecht
Petrus Slecht

Hendrick Turk
Jacob Turk
Jacob Trimper
Wessel Ten Brock
Cornelis Ten Brock
Coenradt Ten Brock
John Trompour
William Teerpenning
Christoffel Tappan

Cornelis Van Keuren Jr.
Abraham Van Keuren
Matthias Van Keuren
Cornelius M. Van Keuren
Phillip Van Keuren
Hezekiah Van Keuren
Peter Van Aken
Gideon Van Aken
Elephaz Van Aken
Jan Van Aken
Abraham G. Van Aken
Tobias Van Buren
Matthew Van Buren
Phillipus Viele
Christian Valkenburgh
Isaac Van Wagonen Jr
John Van Leuven Jr.
W’illiam Van Cleef
Thomas Van Gaasbeek
Abraham Van Gaasbeek
Lawrence Van Gaasbeek
Johannis Volck Jr.
Aaronhoudt Valck
Jacob Van Beenschoten
John Van Steenbergh
Abraham T. Van Steenbergh

Adam Swart
Wilhelmus Swart
Phillip Swart
Hendrick Staats
Gilbert Saxon
Jerijmias Shoe
Solomon Skutt
John Schepmoes
Adam Short
George Sparling
Petrus Sax
Martynus Schryven
Johannis Schryven
Petrus Smedes
Teunis Sleght
Hendricus B. Slecht
Johannis Slecht
Hendricus J. Slecht

Benjamin Turk
Abraham Turk
William Thompson
Wessel Ten Brock Jr.
Benjamin Ten Brock
Jacob Ten Brock
Matthew Edward Trompour
Jurryann Tappan

Gerritt Van Keuren
Abraham Van Keuren Jr.
Matthew Van Keuren Jr.
Johannis J Van Keuren
Johnannis Van Keuren
Isaac Van Aken
Benjamin Van Aken
Petrus Van Aken
Mayorius Van Aken
Abraham Van Aken
Nicholas Vanderlyn
Philip Van Buren
Cornelis Viele
John Valkenburgh
Isaac Van Wagonen
Peter Van Leuven
Andries Van Leuven
Jacobus Van Gaasbeek
Abraham W. Van Gaasbeek
John Van Gaasbeek
William Van Gaasbeek
Wilhelm Valck
Solomon Van Beenschoten
Johannis Van Beenschoten
Petrus Van Steenbergh
Abraham Van Steenbergh

128

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

KINGSTON.— Continued.

Tobias Van Steenbergh Jr.
Benjamin Van Steenbergh
Jacobus Van Etten
Arie Van Etten
Johannis Van Vliet
Tjerck Van Vliet
Anthony L. Van Schaayck

Joseph West
Samuel Whittaker
Jacobus Whittaker
Barent Whittaker
William Whittaker Jr.
John Whittaker Jr.
John Whittaker
Edward Whittaker
Johannis Wolfin
Samuel Wolfin
Hendrick Wolfin
Jacobus Wolfin
John Wolfin
Peter A Winne
Benjamin Winne
Petrus Weist
Hendricus Wells
Johannis Weaver
Evert Wynkoop
Hezekiah Wynkoop
Cornelius E. Wynkoop
Dirck Wynkoop Jr.
James Welch

Matthew Van Steenbergh
Hendricus Van Steenbergh
Johannis Van Etten
Abraham Van Vliet
Jan Van Vliet
Wilhelm Vollandt

Peter West
Peter Whittaker
Benjamin Whittaker
James J Whittaker
Abraham Whittaker
Philip Whittaker
William Whittaker
James Whittaker Jr.
Johannis Wolfin Jr.
Godfrey Wolfin
Jeremiah Wolfin
Wilhelmus Wolfin
Laurence Winne
Arent Winne
Johannis Weist
Jan Wells
Cornelius Wells
John Walker
Peter Winkoop
Tobias Wynkoop
William Wynkoop
Johannis Wynkoop

John Young

Jurryann Young
Jeremiah Young

Signers in the troop of horse in Ulster County, dated in Kingston June 9, 1775
Philip Hoghteling, Captain; Sylvester Salisbury First Lieutenant; Peter Menderse
Second Lieutenant; C. C. Newkirk, Cornet; Cornelius J. Dubois, First Quarter-
master; James Roe, Second Quartermaster; Abner Houghteling, Clerk; Petrus
Bruick Benjamin Bruyn, Abraham Burhans Daniel Broadhead Tobias Du Bois,
Anthony Dumond, Cornelius J. Depue, Benjamin Depue Jr. Petrus Du Bois, William
De Witt John J Du Bois, Isaac C. Davis Jacobus F. Davis, Jacob Elmendorph Jr.
Gerrit Elmendorph Jr. Jonathan Elmendorph Jr. Johannis Ealigh, Jury Folland,
James Hamilton, Martinus Hummel Jr. John Hasbrouck, Wilhelmus Houghteling
Jr. Benjamin Krom, Petrus J. Keator, Tjerck Low, John Mynderse, Johannis Mer-
kel, Phillip Newkirk, Arie Newkirk, Petrus Ed. Osterhout, Johannis H. Osterhout,
Edward Osterhout, Petrus P. Osterhout, Moses Patterson, Petrus Smith, Felten
Smith, Benjamin B. Schoonmaker, Johannis Turck Abraham Ten Broeck, Jacobus
Van Waggenen, Abraham Van Waggenen, Jr. Frederick Vandermerken Jr. Adam
Wolfin.

MEN OF ULSTER IN THE REVOLUTION.

129

Kingston, June 9, 1775.

A list of the persons who have refused to sign the general association:

Jan Laurence Bogh
Johannis Burhans
John Cox Jr.

Benjamin Delameter Jr.
Jacob Dewitt
Stephanus Eckert
Andries Ealigh
Abraham Hommel
John Luecks
Johannis Plank
Johannis Row,

Albartus Sluyter
Johannis Smith
Jacob Trompour
Johannis Trompour,
Mattheus York,

William Burhans
Adam Bartolomews
Benjamin Dewitt
Richard Davenport
Owen Daily
William Ealigh
William Fiero
Peter Luecks
Josias Minklaer,

Johannis Plank Jr.

Frederick Row Jr.

Johan Samuel Schoonmaker,
Petrus Schoonmaker Jr.

Paul Trompour,

Nicholas Trompour,

John York.

Johan Hardenbergh

Dirk Wynkoop

Abrm. Van Wagenen

Cornelius Newkerk

Johannes Dubois

Heugo Freer

Heyman Rossa

Gerredt Van Wagener

J Van Wagener Jr

Johan De Lametter

Hendrick Konstapel

Petrus Crispell Jr

Zacharias Sluyter

Jacob Winfiel

Jacob Freer Jr

Francis Delavigne, of Beilviel

Cornelis Crispell

Johannes Blanshan

Sam’l Schoonmaker

Petrus P Crispell

Jacob DuBois Jr

Petrus Roosa

Egbert Roosa

John Winfiel

John Clyn

Hendrfck Smith

Jacob H Roosa

Johannes Suylant

Jacob Blanshan

Benjamin Crispell

John Van Deusen

J J. Van Wagenen

HURLEY.

Jonetan Huchin
Zacharias Roosa
Huybert Ostrander
Coen’dt Elmendorph
Jacob Sluyter
David De Lamater
Ger. Hardenbergh Jr
Lucas Elmendorph
Matthewis Ten Eyck
A Wynkoop
Petrus Crispell
J H. Van Wagenen
Johannes Van Wagenen
Jacob Berger,

Johannes Wieler
Anthony Crispell
Simon Lafever
Petrus Wynkoop
Jacob Lafever
Abraham Crispell
C W Elmendorph
Abraham Sluyter
Heugo J. Freer
Jeremiah Freer
Daniel York
Cornelis Krom
Jeremiah Freer
John Borrow
Coenradt Lafaver
Elias Teerpenning
Hendricus Oosterhoudt
Petrus York

130

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

HURLEY. — Continued.

Petrus Van Wagenen
Samuel Lafever
Cornelis Cool Jr
Benjamin Sluyter
Benj. J. Van Wagenen
Benjamin H Freer
Robert Masten
Jacob Krom
Benjamin Winfiel
Mat Blanshan Jr
Jacob Kyser
John Davis
Samuel Burhans Jr
Gerret Konstapel
Ephraim Kyser

Abram Kyser
Benjamin Newkerk
Cornelius Cool
Johannes Ostrander
Jacobus Hardenbergh
Edward Bruin
Hue Borrow
Jan Van Leuven
Cornel. D Wynkoop
Charles DeWitt
Matthys Blanjan
Coenradt Newkerk
Abraham Krom
Jacobus Conway

‘Being all of the inhabitants of the town of Hurley.’

A. Wynkoop, Chairman

MARBLETOWN.

Solomon Terwilger
Johannes Keator
Johannes Bogart
John Connor
Samuel Frame
Frederick Davis
Hen Pawling
James Murdruch
Nathan Smedes
William Krom
Gysbert Krom
Isaac Davis
Abraham Cantine
^cob DeLametter
Edward Lunsberry
Johannes F Keator
Michael Lines
James Phenix
Petrus Oosterhoudt
Garton Nottingham
Daniel Mowris
Stephen Nottingham, Junr.
William Cantine
Mathew Keator
Samuel Mowris Jr
George Middagh
Samuel Keator
Benjamin Keator
Coenradt DuBois
Abraham Johnson
Hendrick G Krom
Philip Hardenbergh
William McGinnis
Abraham Hardenbergh
John Jack

J Van Wagenen Jr
Sol Van Wagenen
Th’s Schoonmaker
Jeronomus Rappleyee
Casper Basemer
Richard Akerly
Benoni Moulks
John Batty
Dirck Slaughter
Frederick Schoonmaker
Thomas Klaurwater
John Van Leuven
Abraham Klaurwater
Hendrick Rosa
Abraham Constable
Samuel Gibson
Samuel Mowris
John Shaw
William Teets Jr
William Johnson
Henry Daorin
Petrus Van Leuven
Frederick Keaton
Jacob Keaton Jr
Melgert Keator
Benjamin Louw
Jacobus Reosekraus
John C DeWitt
Cornelius Keator
Jacob Snyder
Nicholas Keyser
Cornelius Brink
Andries Roosa
John G. Krom
Petrus Krom

Henry R. Brigham.

MEN OF ULSTER IN THE REVOLUTION.

M ARBI.ETOWN— C o n tin ued.

John Cushnicham

Samuel Davies Jr

Arie Jack

John J Crispell

Sil Vandermerken

Henry Mowris

Wilhelmus Roosa

Garret Newkerk

William Orr

Samuel Dodge

William Benson

William Pattison

Gysbert Van Leuven

John Conway

Johannes Smith

Peter Misner

James Peresanias

Jacobus H Bush

Dirck Schepmoes

Frederick Merkle

Isaac Robison

David Vandermerke

Jacob S Freer

Jacob Chambers

Junas Roosa

Thomas Chambers

John Constable

Joseph Chambers

Abraham Constable Jr

Wlihelmus Keator

Thomas Sammons

Johannes H Krom

Cornelius Sammons

William H. Krom

Abraham Helm

Samuel Brodhead

John Ernest

; James Stilwell

Hendrick Brink

Richard Oliver

Jacob DeWitt

Samuel North

Jacob S Louns

Levi Pawling

Abraham Roosa

Jacob Hasbrouck

Albert Smedes

William Peck

Abraham Keaton^

Benjamin Peters

George Middagh jr

Cornel E Wynkoop

Joseph Hasbrouck jr

Andries J DeWitt

Jesse Smith

Thomas Schoonmaker

Benjamin Keator

Cornelius Sluyter

J Vandermerke

Peter Sammons

Samuel Mowris

Abraham Cantine

John Stokes

Alexander Munro

Johannes G Rosa

Andrew Oliver

Dirck Bush

John Cantine

Frederick Wood

Jacob D Lametter

Thomas Wood

David Bevier

Johannes Middagh

F Schoonmaker jr

Thomas Carver

Chas W Brodhead

Cornelius Bogart

Edward Lounsberry

Hendrick P. Osterout

Jacob J Hasbrouck

James Robinson

Ephriam Chambers

Leonard Hardenbergh

Isaac Hasbrouck Jr

Jacobus B Hasbrouck

Cornelius Brink

Michael Pattison

John Brodhead

Johannes Keator jr

Roelof Eltinge

John Van Vliet

Cornelius Stillwell

James Van Wagenen

Moses M Cantine

Edward Denoul

Philip D. B. Bevier

Frederick Kontraman

James McKemson

Mat. Kontraman

Nathaniel Cantine

Andries Kontraman

Gerard Hardenbergh

Elias Kontraman

Mathew Cantine

Jan Krom

Adam Hoffman

Jacob Roosa

. ; Alexander McGinnis

132

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

M A RBLETO WN— ConfiwM erf,

Benjamin Davies

Jacobus Morris

Jacob J, Keaton

Egbert Brink

David Alkins

John J Krom

Wilhemus Bush

William Ernest

Johannes Roosa

Daniel Johnson

Robert Brink

Isaac C Daviss

Cornelius Krom

Jacob J Hasbrouck

John Davies

John DeWitt

Hendrick Bush Jr

Peter Johnson

William Nottingham

Moses Diamond

Peter Mowris

Martin Bogard

Benjamin Keator

Simon Van Wagenen

Gideon Keator

John Keator

Thomas Keaton

William Keator

John Keator jr

Petrus Keator

Nicholas Keator

Hendrick B Krom

Hendrick W Krom

Daniel Brodhead

Christopher Snyder

Michael Teets

Petrus Davies

Johannes Sluyter

Hendrick Kyser

Joseph Kyser

William Berry

Cornelis Keyser

William Sluyter

Richard Stokes

Cornelius Keyser

Dirck Krom

John Roosa

Art. Van Wagenen

Stephen Nottingham

Jessias Robbison

Cornelius Tack jr '

Frederick Bush

Frederick Klaarwater

Only one person refused to sign, viz

Corn. Vandermerken

Simon Van Wagener j

Johan Bartlewalk

Severyn Hasbrouck

Peter McDowall

Leus Brodhead

Martinus Oosterhoudt

Joseph Klaawater

Andries Frier

Benjamin Krom

Thomas Vandemerken jr

Peter Van Wagenen

Hermanns Oosterhoudt

John Hasbrouck

Sol Vandemerke

John Vandemerke

Mart Middagh

Andries Davies

Jacob Rapelye

Isaac Charter

Casper Charter

Frederick Charter

Derrick Chambers

Jacobus Conner

Robert Betties

John Betties

William Dulap

Nathaniel Web,

John Slouter

Peter Smith

Peter Smith Jr

Cornelis Ernest

Thomas Darcy

Casparrus Marcius

Charles Adams

Edward Talbott

Jacobus Rosa <

John Rapelye

Matthew Newkerk

Abraham Middagh

Gysbert Rosa

Johan Van Wagenen

Jacob Seely ' ;

Jacob Klaarwater
Daniel Klaarwater
Hendricus Crispell
John Smith
William Hardy
Johannes Van Leuven
Daniel Van Luven
Isaac Klaarwater
Jacob Kyser
Thomas Johnson

Levi Pawling, Chairman.
: William Wood.

MEN OF ULSTER IN THE REVOLUTION.

Abraham Doyau
Nathaniel DuBois
Garret Freer jr
Thomas Tomkins
Jacob Hasbrouck jr
Jedediah Doan
Zophar Perkins
Oliver Grey
Leonard Lewis
John Stevens
Daniel Fowler
Daniel Woolsey
Alexander Lane
Jacharias Hasbrouck
Petrus Freer
Abram Doyau jr
Petrus Hasbrouck
Simon Freer
Louis F. DuBois
Abraham Vandermerken
Michael Devoe
Richard Tomkins
William Keech
Isaac Lefever
Andries Lefever jr
Abraham Elting
Johannes Low
Simon Deyo jr
Petrus Van Wagenen
Cornelius Elting
John A Hardenburgh
Joseph Hasbrouck
Peleg Ransom
Ebenezer Perkins
Johannes Eckert
Daniel Freer jr
Roelof J Elting
Samuel Bevier
Andries Lefever
Hugo Freer jr
Benjamin Hasbrouck jr
Nathaniel Potter
Daniel Diver
Samuel Johnson
John McDaniel
Ralph Trowbridge
Cornelius DuBois
Daniel DuBois
Johannes W. Smith
Jacob T Freer
Philip Doyeu
Isaac DuBois
Joseph Terwilger
Paulus Freer

NEW PALTZ.

Benjamin Elsworth
Isaac Thomkins jr
William Lane
Joshua Drew
Jonathan Johnson
Elijah Drew
John Decker
William Weaver
A Yelverton jr
John Presler
Richard Lewis
Peter Drew
William Tilson
Michael Leroy
Jacob Whitney
Thomas Sasson
Simeon Crandall
Solomon Elting.

Jehu Louw
Simon Doyau
George Nies
Isaac Freer
Jacob Bevier
Solomon Louw.
Benjamin Freer
Isaac Monyon
Christofel Dugain,

John Terwilger
Israel Cole,

John Neely
Petrus J. Schoonmaker
Abraham Hass
Josaphat Hasbrouck
Isaac Harris
Johannis M Louw
Jonathan Lefever
Henry Herald
; Jacob DuBois

Lewis Puntenear
Hendricus DuBois
William Hood
Abraham Ein
Abraham Lefever
Elias Hardenbergh
Daniel Lefever
Jonathan Presler
' H Wessemuller

Joseph Griffin
John Griffin jr
Jacob Louw
Simeon Louw
Mathew Lefever
John York
, Solomon Bevier

134 the county

NEW PALTZ.

Jonas Freer
Jesaias Hasbrouck
Jonathan Doran
George Wirts
Jonas Freer jr
Tennis Van Vliet
Cornelius DuBois jr
Wilhelmus Schoonmaker
Isaac Louw
Henry Green
Robert Phenix
Jonathan Terwilger
Jacob Weaver
Joseph Els worth jr
Thomas Lemunyun
Thomas Cole
Josiah Drake
John Way
William Elsworth jr
Samuel Lewis
Joseph Brooks
Moses Quimby
Hugh Cole
James Daeker ; ,

Isaac Seaman

Jacob Degarmo

Seth Hubble

Henry Deyo jr

Jeremiah Tomkins

Joseph Ransom

James Done

Wouter Slyter

Mortinus Griffin

Daniel Doyan

Johannes Walron

Henry Lits

Stephen Bedford

Jonas Bedford

Cornelius Bedford

Ebeneezer Gilbert

Nathaniel Wyatt

Justus Hubble

David Whitney

John Woolsey

Eleazer Cole

Samuel Dubois

Dirck D Winkoop

Jacob Carring

John Lemyon

Michael Palmeteer

Jacobus Hasbrouck ■ '

David Hasbrouck

Abraham Donaldson

OF ULSTER.

— Continued.

John B Deyo
Daniel Freer
Zacharias Sickles
Frederick Hymes
Solomon Lefever
Thomas Shirky
Thomas Dunn jr
Samuel Teerpenningh
Thomas Dunn
Nathaniel Lefever
James Dunn
Joseph Freer
Johannes Freer
Simeon Campbell
Jedediah Thomson
Peter Viely
Hendricus DuBois jr
Petrus Vandermerken
Methuselem DuBois
Johannes Deyo jr
Henry Puntenear,
Petrus Lefever
Valentine Perkins
Abraham Concklin
Henry Hannes
Anthony Yelverton
Michael Weaver
Gideon Dean
Isaac Tomkins
John Riker
Petrus Bevier
Peter Doyo
Benjamin Dubois
Christeyan Doyo
Benjamin Doyo
William Allison
Abraham Dubois
Andrew Dubois jr
Daniel Dubois jr
Reuben Campbell
David Louw
John Lefever
William Donaldson,
James Auchmoutie
Abraham Devoe
William Elsworth sr.
Joseph Coddington
Daniel Turner
Casper Maybey
William Mozer
Peter Palmeteer
George Nies, jr
Laurence I^ies

MEN OF ULSTER IN THE REVOLUTION.

135

NEW PALTZ. — Continued.

John Lefever
Christofel Deyo

Persons who refused or neglected to
Nathaniel DuBois, Chn.

Joseph Coddington, Com. Clk.

Samuel Townsend,

Jacobus Auchmoutie

John Nies
John Lester

Nathaniel DuBois, Chairman.
Joseph Coddington, Committee Clerk.

sign ;

Matthew McKeely,

Richard Carmon,

Noah Elting, Esq.,

Nathaniel Waters.

NEW MARLBOROUGH.

Benjamin Carpenter
Lewis Dubois
Joseph Mory
Jurian Mackay
Gilbond Cotton
Jacob Wood
John W'oolsey
Bordewin Terepanny
Eleazer Frazer
Michael Wygant
Solomon Warring
Richard Carpenter
Elija Farris
Elija Lewis
Henry TerBoss
Silas Purdy
John Duffield
Wright Carpenter
Peter Barrian
Abraham Quick
Abija Perkins M. D.
Benj Ely M. D.

Seth Perkins M. D.
Benj J Frazer
Lawrence Bokker
Abraham Cooper
Stephen Case
Ichabod Williams
John Montgomery
Jacob DeGroot
John Mulliner
Ananias Valentine
Zadock Lewis
Flavius Waterman
James Pride •

Jacob Daton
Joseph Caverly
Nathaniel Mills
Ebeneezer St John

William Martin
Durneo Relyee
Christ. Ostrander
Henry Lockwood
John Polhemus
Stephen Purdy,
Noah St John
John Polhemus
George Landy
Jacob Kent
William Bloomer
Isaac Cropsie
Uriah Drake
John Bishop
Nath’l Goodspeed
Micajah Lewis
John Davis
Benj amine Huett
George Williams
John Schurdt
James Filkins
George Hallett
Thomas Quick jr
William Caverly
William Quick
Henry Decker
Terrett Lester
James Merritt
William Purdy
Henry Hide
William Pembroke
Eliza Gardner
John Bond
John Knowlton
John Scott
John Mackey
Mathew Wygant
Samuel Abbe
Andrew Ares

136

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

NEW

Samuel Mackay
Andrew Young
David Mackey
Abraham Deane
Gilbert Bloomer
Joseph Bloomer
William Stanton
Bartholomew Baker
George Williams
David Martin
Abraham Lane
George Lane .

Henry Ferris
Allen Lester
John Ares
Nathaniel Harcourt
John Wygant
James Wheeler
John Quick
Thomas Quick
Israel Tuthill
Jeriah Rhods
Jesse Wheeler
Oliver Wheeler
Job St John
Jonathan Woolsey
George Stanton
Daniel Bloomer
Job Wood
John Furman
Nowell Furman
Isaac Morele
Daniel Knowlton
Peter Caverty
James Hunter
Nathaniel Mills
Josiah Lockrad
Benjamin Dusenbury
Isaac Dyo
Daniel McQuinn
Janter Willidge
John Truilliger jr
William Relyee
Marcus Ostrander
Joshua Lockwood
Jacob Terepanny
John Terepanny
Joseph Gee
Simon Relyee jr
Stephen Seymour
Josiah Baker
John Baker
Moses Cary
Bartholomew Bacon

MARLBOROUGH. — Continued.

Alexander Cropsie
Thomas Silkworth
Joseph Carpenter
Pharaoh Latting
Samuel Hannah
David McMin
Andrew Cropsie
John Lester
David Brush
John Wilson
William Woolsey
William Hollister
Philip Aires
Henry Jones
Joseph Welles
John Wygant jr
Benj Stead
Henry Simpson
Adam Cropsie
George Woolsey
Eneas Quimby
Samuel St John
Abraham Mabee
Richard Woolsey
Wm Van Blaricon
Adam St John
James Jackson
Abel Barnum
William Ostrander
Adam Caser
Simon Relyee jr
Jonathan Tuttle
James Owen
Peter Looze
/vbraham Mabee
Benj amine Comfort
Israel Tompkins
Hugo Scutt
Abraham Scutt
William Scutt
Robert Everitt
Metevis Fevin
John Smith
Alex. Mackey jr
Philip Caverty
Daniel Geldersleeve
Matthew St John
Isaac Van Benschoten
Petrus Ostrander
Nathaniel Kumph
Alex Mackey sr
Zephaniah Woolsey
Josiah St John
I Jesse Farechild

Alonzo Rose.

MEN OF ULSTER IN THE REVOLUTION.

137

NEW MARLBOROUGH.—

Nathaniel Hull

Nehemiah Smith

John Noll

Henry Scott

Charles Mackey

James Van Blaricom

Chas. Mackey jr

Walter Comfort

Nathaniel Quimby

Joseph Bloomer

Benjamin Woolsey

Jonathan Lily

Samuel Hull jr

Caleb Merritt

Nathaniel Hull jr

Thomas Merritt

John Huitt

Gabriel Merritt

Thomas Pembroke

Jacob Cannaff

John Lester

Levi Quimby

Gideon Ostrander

James Quimby

Henrick Deyo jr

Thomas Wygant

Daniel Ostrander

William Dusenbury

Garrett Benschoten

Jonathan Terepaning

George Platt

David Ostrander

Herman Chase

Thomas Mackey

Abraham Lossom

Henry Deyo sr

Hendrick Huse

Daniel Cook jr

Durnee S Relyee

William Wygant

Francis Gaine

Josiah Merrett

James Waring
Daniel Robertson

Daniel Merritt.

Benj Carpenter, Chairman
Azariah Perkins, Clerk

Those who objected to signing the association were:

Isaac Garrison,
Letting Carpenter,
Moses Grigory,
James Grigory,
Nathel Hughson,
Samuel Merritt,
Elisha Purdy,

John Caverly,

John Young,

Edward Hallock,
Edward Hallock, Jr.
Solomon Fowler,
John Gero,

William Gero,
Nathaniel Gee,
Andrew Gee,

Henry Cronk,
Frederick Cronk

Frederick Gee,
George Harden,
Jonathan Lane,
Nathaniel Horton,
Isaac Horton,

David Horton,
Joseph Lane,
Samuel Devine,
Joseph Devine,
Durnee Relyee, jun.
Benj’n Relyee
William Place,
Obadiah Palmer
Samuel Hallock,
Daniel Cookseur
Isaac Cannaff
Jeremiah Cannaff
William Warren,
Jacob Rossell,
Humphrey Merritt.

Note — A number of these men were Quakers.

138

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

A. DeWitt
Benjamin Hoornbeck
Johannes Bevier Junr.
Ephriam Dupuy
D Romeyn
Benjamin Kurtwright
Benjamin Bevier
Andrew Bevier
L. Schoonmaker
Petrus Schoonmaker
Sylvester Derby
Simon Dupuy
Elesa Roosakrauce
Cornelis Schoonmaker
Joel Hoornbeck
Moses Dupue jr
Cornelis Oosterhout
Peter Bruyn
Peterus Scott
Peter Inderly
Frederick Westbrook
Isaac Hoornbeck
Zacharias Rosekrans
Teunis Oosterhout
Peterus DeWitt
Hendricus Oosterhout
Cornelius Hardenberg
C Van Wagenen
Cornelius Hardenberg
John Sammons
James Burck
Petrus Hendrickson
Joachim D. Schoonmaker
Johanis Schoonmaker
Joachim Schoonmaker jr
Hendricus Hoornbeck
Jacob Van Wagenen
Conelis Dupuy
John Dupue

Johannis G. Hardenbergh Esq.
John Sleght
Minna Fisher
Philip Hoornbeck
Andrew White
Jacobus Oosterhout
Hendrick Roosakrance
Frederick Vandermerk
Jacobus Wynkoop
Jacob D Hoornbeck
Wm. A DeWitt
Hendericus Kittle
Mattheius Cr. Janson
Teunis Janson
Cornelius C Janson

ROCHESTER.

Jacobus Schoonmaker
Patt Conolly
John Krom
Hartman Heyn
Frederick Rosekrans
Jonathan Westbrook
Henry Hoornbeck jr
Tojachem Depuy
Lodewyck Hoornbeck
Ephrain Depuy jr
Jacob Barley
Benj. Van Wagenen
Petru Ennis
John Scott
John McBryde
Coenradt Sealy
Jacobus J Quick
Benjamin Allegar
James Hill
Jarvis Jansen
John Low, jr
Daniel Wood

Jacob D. W. Schoonmaker
Marinis Chambers
Moses Depuy
Abraham Depuy
Matthew Newkerk jr
Benj C Newkerk
Benjamin Gonsalus
Isaac Newkerk
Reuben DeWitt
Warren Hoornbeck
Andries Vernaey
Manuel Gonsalus jr
Richard Brodhead
Simeon DeWitt
John Schoonmaker
Jacob Turner
Daniel Schoonmaker
John Evans
Corns, Hoornbeck
Art. Van Wagenen
Jacob Oosterhout
Andries Roodolf
Jacobus Divens
Samuel Gonsalus
Egbert DeWitt jr
Nicholas Simmerman
Jacobus Bruyn jr
Benjamin Merkel
Jacobus Kortreght
Petrus Burger
Abraham Kortreght
Arthur Morris

MEN OF ULSTER IN THE REVOLUTION.

139

ROCHESTER. — Continued.

Benjamin Janson
John Low
Zacharias Low
John Brodhead
John Janson
J. Van Dermerkin
Simon Bevier
Henry Brodhead,
Abraham Bevier
Abraham Janson
Daniel McKindly
Mighel Sax
Peter Cantine
Josua Thompson
Wm DeWitt
Peter Cole jr
Henry Harp
Chester Benj amine
Dirck Westbrook
Samuel Hoornbeck
Michael Inderly
Kryn Oosterhout
John Kittle
Jacob Barker
Lodewyck Souly
Eliza Hoornbeck
Jacobus Chambers
Cornelis Chambers
Andries A DeWitt
Jacob Bevier
John DeWitt
Johannes Mack
Johannes Hoornbeck
Benj’in Oosterhoudt
Coenradt Burger
Johannes Oostenhoudt jr
Egbert DeWitt
Dick Hoornbeck
Nicholaes Burger
John Mullen
Mattheus Kortreght
Gideon Hoornbeck
Martin Burgher
Benjamin Depuy
Hartman Eennis
Corn. Oosterhoudt
Peter Harp
Edward Wood
William Wood
Edward Wood jr
Peter Wood
Cornelius Jansen
Thomas Mackkee
Jacobus Depuy

P Oosterhoudt
Free Vandermerken
Samuel Oosterhoudt
Jacobus Quick jr
John Harp
Ezekiel Oosterhoudt
Jonathan Burly
Elias Merkel
James O’Bryan
J Hoornbeck Esq.
William McDonnell
Elija Benj amine
Jacob Van Dermerken
Arie Van Dermerken
Aldert Oosterhoudt
Jacobus Van Etten
Jacob Smit
Henderick Quick
Richard Davis
Philip Quick
Cornelius Quick
Elias Hendrickson
Jacobus Seneck
Jacobus Bos jr
Ephraim Baker
Gysbert Krom
Coenradt A Tiel
Barent Merkel
Jacobus Hendrickson
Cornelius Floornbeck
Isaac Roosa
Johannes Keyser
Joseph Beider
John Hays jr
George Schaefer
Jacob DeWitt
John Beider
Solomon Krom jr
Alexander Katter
Coenradt Bevier
Benjamin Stanton
Henry Simmerman
Abraham Kadegal
Peter Helm
Cornelis Newkerk.
Wessel Vernooy
Jerry Mack
Jacobus Tornaer
Harmanns Rosekrans
Joseph Krom
Cornelius Vernooy
Johannes Kerson
Solomon Bevier
Henry Harp jr

140

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

ROCHESTER. — Continued.

Benjamin Bruyn
Abraham Heermans
Joseph Depuy
F Van Dermerken jr
Jacob DeWitt
Glondy Middagh
Jeremiah Kittle
Arie Oosterhoiidt
Johannes Ousterhout, Junr.
Samuel Kerson
Philip Heyn
John A DeWitt
John Van Wagener
Abraham Klaerwater
John McNeal
James Buyrns
Jacobus Hendrickson
William Beider
Wessel Vernooy
Thomas DeWitt
Peter Sax
William Brodhead
Jerck DeWitt
John Wood
Nathan Vernooy
Johannes Vernooy
Josiah Bevier

Cornelius Cole jr
Benjamin Roosa
Daniel Schoonmaker
Martinus Klaerwater
Gerrit C Newkerk
Henry DeWitt
Jonathan Vernooy
Peterus Vernooy
Mighel Besemer
Stephen DeWitt
John Badly
William Davis
Jesse Bevier
Jacob Newkerk
William DeWitt jr
Jacobus Kortreght
Benjamin Van Wagenen
Solomon Krom
Andries Swiger
Timothy Hatch
Isaac Bevier
Lawrence Koornbeck
Jonas Hasbrouck
Thomas Porter
Jothem Schoonmaker
Andries A DeWitt

John Youngs,

Philip Swartwout, Esq.
Benjamin Depue, Esq.

Capt. John Crage,

William Harlow,

John McKinstry,

Benjamin Cuttaback, Jun.
Robert Cook,

Haramones Van Inwagin,
Tereck V. K. Westbrook,
William Rose,

Capt. Jacob Rutson Dewitt,
Ely Strickland
Stephen Carney,

Joel Addams,

George Gillaspay,

James Curren,

Jacob Rosa,

Abraham Cuddeback, Jun.
Samuel King,

Abner Skinner,

Frederick Bender,

Valentine Wheeler,

MAMAKATING.

Johannes Shuflfelbam,
Johannes Shuffelbam, Jun’r
James Blizard,

Thomas Combs,

James McCivers,

Joseph Hubbard,

John Thompson,

Samuel Dealey,

William Smith,

John Harding,

Neathan Cook,

Jepthia Fuller,

David Gillaspy,

John Hay,

Joseph Shaw,

James Gillaspay,

Abraham Rosa,

Henry Newkerk
Efrim Thomas,

Hendrey Elsworth,

Joseph Thomas,

Abraham McQuinn,

John Sybolt,

MEN OF ULSTER IN THE REVOLUTION.

141

MAMAKATING. — Continued.

Thomas Kyte,

Joseph Skinner,

Johanathan Brooks,

Joseph Arthur,

John Wallis,

David Wheeler,

Joseph Drake,

John Travis,

Ebenezer Parks,

John Travis, Jun,

Jacobus Swartwout,

Daniel Decker,

Philip Swartwout, Jun.

Nathaniel Travis,

Geredus Swatwot,

Ezekiel Travis,

Isaac Van Tuile,

Joseph Travis,

Joseph Westfork

Jeremiah Shaver,

Petrus Gumore,

Joseph Ogden,

Ezkiel Gumore,

David Daley,

Jacob Dewitt Gumore,

Daniel Walling,

Daniel Van Flees, (Fleet)

Daniel Walling, Jun.

Jacob Van Inaway,

Rufus Stanton,

Cornealis Van Inaway,

Ruben Babbet,

Moses Depue, Jun.

Matthew Terwilliger,

Jacobus Cuddaback,

Jonathan Wheeler,

Petrus Cuddaback,

John Williams,

Elias Gumore,

Ebenezer Holcomb,

John Brooks,

Geradus Vaniwegen,

Elisha Barbar,

William Cuddeback,

Jonathan Derus,

Abraham Cuddeback,

Samuel Depue,

Eliphet Stevens,

William Johnston,

Elisha Travis,

James Williams,

Aldert Rosa,

Charles Gilletts,

Adam Rivenburgh,

Peter Simpson

Stephen Holcomb,

Jonathan Miller,

Daniel Woodworth,

Moses Roberts,

Daniel Roberts,

John Duglass,

Moses Miller,

Elias Miller,

Isaac Rosa,

Abraham Smith,

George J. Deneston,

Asa Kimbal,

Josiah Parks,

Lenord Henery,

Robert Milliken,

John Gillaspy,

Matthew Neely,

Tho. Lake,

Jonathan Barber,

Robert Comfert,

David Dayly,

Gershom Sampson,

Joseph Rendal,

Johannis Wash,

Ephraim Forgison,

Jacob Comfert,

Jacob Stanton,

Jonathan Strickland,

Zepheniah Holcombe

Samuel Patterson,

Abraham Smedes.

The signers of the pledge in the Precincts of Hanover, Wallkill and
Shawangunk are not of record. The New Windsor list is not of record,
but is preserved in Washington’s Headquarters at Newburgh. The New-
burgh list is of record and with the New Windsor list may be found in
“Hi.story of Orange County,” edition of 1885. The Precincts referred
to were nearly unanimous. Shawangunk and Hanover were among the

142

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

first to burn (January, 1775) in public conflagration, the insidious
pamphlet of the period, “Free Thoughts on the Resolves of Congress.”

The Committees of Safety.

The Committees of Safety and Observation which were brought into
the field of action in conjunction with the local associations, were, as has
been already stated, very important bodies of men ; they were the local de
facto government during the first years of the rebellion. Unfortunately
a full list of names of the Precinct or Town Committees, who also formed
the county committees, cannot now be gathered from the fragmentary
records which have been handed down. From the roll of attendants on
the several meetings of the County Committee the following have been
compiled :

Kingston — Joseph Gasherie, Capt. Johannis Snyder, Abraham Van Keuren, Eg-
bert Dumont, Oke Suydam, Jacobus Van Gaasbeek, Col. Andries De Witt, Junr.,
Johannis Minderse, Johannis Sleght, Johannis Beekman, Tobias Van Buren. Joseph
Gasherie, chairman.

New Paltz — Johannis Hardenbergh, Jacob Hasbrouck, Junr., Joseph Hasbrouck,
Andries Le Fever, Daniel Le Fevre, Abraham Donaldson, Elias Hardenbergh, Peleg
Ransom, Nathaniel DuBois, Ebenezer Perkins. Nathaniel DuBois, chairman.

Hanover — Doct. Charles Clinton, Arthur Parks, Alexander Trimble, James Latta,
Capt. Jacob Newkirk, William Jackson, Henry Smith, Philip Mole, John Wilkin,
James McBride, James Milliken, Samuel Barkley, James Rea, David Jagger. Alex.
Trimble, chairman.

Newburgh — Col. Jonathan Hasbrouck, Thomas Palmer, Woolvert Acker, John
Belknap, Abel Belknap, John Robinson, Benjamin Birdsall, Joseph Coleman, Doct.
Moses Higby, Samuel Sands, Stephen Case, Isaac Belknap. Thomas Palmer, chair-
man.

Hurley — Col. Johannis Hardenbergh, Matthew TenEyck, Hubert Ostrander,
Adriaen Wynkoop, Capt. John VanDeursen, Charles DeWitt. Adriaen Wynkoop,
chairman.

Marbletown — Levi Pawling, Jacob LeLamater, Matthew Cantine, John Cantine,
David Bevier, Cornelius E. Wynkoop. Levi Pawling, chairman.

Wallkill — Abirnael Young, James Wilkin, Francis Byrns, Hezekiah Gale, Moses
Phillips, Henry Wisner, Jr., John Wood, George Thompson. Henry Wisner, Jr.,
chairman.

New Windsor — Col. James Clinton, Capt. James McClaughrey, John Nicoll, John
Nicholson, Nathan Smith, Robert Boyd, Jr., Samuel Brewster, Samuel Sly. After
1776, Clinton and Nicholson being in the field, Samuel Brewster, Robert Boyd, Jr.,
Nathan Smith, Hugh Humphrey, George Denniston, John Nicoll, Col. James Mc-
Claughrey and Samuel Arthur. Sami. Brewster, chairman.

Marlborough — Benjamin Carpenter, Lewis DuBois, Joseph Morey, Abijah Per-
kins, Silas Purdy, Henry TerBoss, Richard Carpenter, John Woolsey, Nick. Wy-
gant, John Smith, Elijah Lewis, Henry DuBois. Benj. Carpenter, chairman.

MEN OF ULSTER IN THE REVOLUTION.

143

Rochester — Andries De Witt, Jacob Hornbeek, Johannis Schoonmaker, Joakim
Schoonmaker, Peter Schoonmaker, Jacobus Van Wagnen, Johannis Bevier, Johannis
F. Hardenbergh. Andries De Witt, chairman.

Shawangunk — ^Jacobus Bruin, Johannis Jansen, Matthew Rea, Benjamin Smedes,
Capt. Thomas Jansen, Jr., Major Johannis Hardenbergh, Dirck Roosa. Jacobus
Bruin, chairman.

Mamakating — Philip Swartwout, Isaac Van Zile (Tile), William Roos, John
Young. List incomplete. John Young, chairman.

The County Committee held its meetings in New Paltz, generally at the
house of Mrs. Ann DuBois.

144

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

CHAPTER IX.

REORGANIZATION OF TFIE MILITIA.

HE reorganization of the local militia was begun by the town or
I precinct committees of Safety and Observation as early as

*■ April, 1775, the committees probably acting by suggestion of

the general committee. It was not, however, until the 22nd of August,
1775, that the Provincial Congress of New York, otherwise known as
the Provincial Convention, passed an act under which the militia of the
Revolution was formally constituted. This act provided that counties,
cities and precincts should be divided by their respective committees, so
that in each district a company should be formed '‘ordinarily to consist
of about eighty-three able bodied and effective men, officers included,
between sixteen and fifty years of age” ; the officers to consist of one
captain, two lieutenants, one ensign, four sergeants, four corporals, one
clerk, one drummer, and one fifer. The several companies so formed
were directed to be “joined into regiments, each regiment to consist of
not less than five or more than ten companies,” which should be com-
manded by “one colonel, one lieutenant colonel, two majors, an adjutant
and a quartermaster.” The regiments were to be classed in six brigades
under “a brigadier-general and a major of brigade,” and to be under
the command of one major-general.

When the organization was completed the militia stood in four regi-
ments, and, with the regiments of Orange County, five in number, formed
the fourth brigade under Brigadier-General George Clinton.* The Ulster
Regiments were the “First or Northern Regiment” including the com-
panies raised in Kingston and Hurley, and north to the county line ; the
“Second or South End Regiment” including the companies raised in the
southern tier of precincts. New Windsor, Hanover and Wallkill, and the
settlements known as Paenpacht, and Mamakating, the latter now in Sul-
livan and the former in Orange; the “Third, or Western Regiment”

• This brigade should not be confused with the special brigade which was organized under
General Clinton in August, 1776, composed of “all levies raised and to be raised in the counties
of Westchester, Duchess, Orange and Ulster.”

REORGANIZATION OF THE MILITIA.

145

including the companies organized in New Paltz, Marbletown and
Rochester, extending south to Wawarsing; the “Fourth, or Middle
Regiment,” including the companies raised in Newburgh, Marlborough,
the present Plattekill and the ancient Shawangunk.

The lists of Field, Staff and Line officers of the several regiments
given in this chapter are from original manuscripts as printed in the
official “Calendar of New York Manuscripts,” and compared with the
lists printed in “Archives of the Revolution.” They are unquestionably
correct. The lists printed in the later volume, “New York in the Revolu-
tion,” are not correct, especially in the assignments of line officers to
regiments, in the Fourth regiment, for example, no less than thirty-four
line officers being given to it that properly belong to other regiments.
The lists of privates given as supplemental to the lists as printed in the
“Archives of the Revolution,” are presumably mixed also, as they would
naturally follow the assignments of the line officers. Without the original
returns the local historian can do nothing in the way of recollating the
lists of the privates. “Sons” and “Daughters” of the Revolution have
no higher duty to pay to the memory “of the Men of the Revolution, and
what they did” than to secure an intelligible and reasonably correct
recollation and reprinting of both of the volumes which have been re-
ferred to.

THE FIRST OR NORTHERN REGIMENT.

The Field and Staff of the “First, or Northern Regiment” as com-
missioned October 25th, 1775, were:

Colo.; Johannes Hardenbergh.

Lieut. Colo.: Abraham Hasbrouck.

Major; Johannes Snyder.

Major; Jonathan Elemendorf.

Adjutant; Petrus Elmendorf.

Qr. Master; Abraham A. Hasbrouck.

The appointment of Johannes Hardenbergh as Colonel was not satis-
factory, and the following Field Officers were substituted, Feb. 13,
1776, viz:

Colonel, Abraham Hasbrouck,

Lieut. Col, J. Johannes Snyder,
First Major, Jonathan Elmendorf,
Second Major, Philipus Hoogtaling,
Adjutant, Abraham A. Hasbrouck,
Qr. Master, John Van Duersen, Jr.

146

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

Abraham Hasbrouck resigned the command early in 1776, and the
Field and Staff was reconstructed :

Colonel, Johannis Snyder,

Lieut. Col., Jonathan Elmendorf,

1st Major, Adriaen Wynkoop,

2d Major, Phillipus Hooghtaling,

Adjutant, Abraham Hasbrouck,

Qr. Master, John Van Deursen.

By later promotion and appointments Phillipus Hooghtaling became
Lieutenant Colonel; John Van Deursen became Qr. Master and later
succeeded Abraham A. Hasbrouck as Adjutant; John Low became Qr.
Master, and Peter Van der'Lyn, Surgeon.

The companies included in the regiment and the officers of which were
commissioned on same date with the first Field and Staff, were six from
Kingston and one from Hurley, as follows :

1st Co. Capt, Everet Bogardus ; First Lieut, DanJ Graham; Second Lieut,
Anthony Frere; Ensign, Johannes Persen.

2d Co. Capt., Moses Cantine ; First Lieut, Phillipp Swart ; Second Lieut, Abra-
ham G. Vanaker; Ensign, Hendrik Tarpenning.

3d Co. Capt., Matthew Dedrick; First Lieut., Everet Wynkoop, Jun. ; Second
Lieut, Petrus Eyganaer; Ensign, Hendrick Myer (not in the Co. May i, 1776).

4th Co. Capt., John L. Dewitt ; First Lieut., Petrus Oosterhout ; Second Lieut,
Tobias Myer; Ensign, Petrus Brink.

5th Co. Capt, Lucas De Witt; First Lieut, Jeremiah Snyder; Second Lieut,
Petrus Backer; Ensign, Petrus West.

6th Co. Capt, Hendrick Schoonmaker; First Lieut., Edward Schoonmaker;
Second Lieut, Edward Whittaker; Ensign, Isaac Burhans.

7th Co. (Hurley). Capt, Gerardus Hardenbergh; First Lieut, Simon Lefever;
Second Lieut., Sami. Schoonmaker; Ensign, Aart Joh’n Van Wagenen; Sergeants —
Johannis Blanchan, Zacharias Sluyter, Jacob Le Fevre; Corporals — Jacob Crom,
Matthews Blanchan, Elias Terpenning, Benjamin H. Freer; Drummer — Abraham
K. Sluyter; Fifer — Willhelmus Sluyter.

Attached to the Regiment was a Kingston company of cavalry :

Capt, Phillipp Houghteling ; First Lieut, Silvester Salisbury ; Second Lieut.,
Petrus Myndertse; Cornet, Corns C. Newkerk; Quartermaster, Corns J. DuBois ;
Second Quartermaster, James Roe.

Names of the privates of this company will be found in connection
with list of signers of the Association in Kingston, given on a previous
page.

Many changes occurred in the officers of the several companies. In
later notes appears :

Tobias Van Buren, Capt Granadier Co.; Jacobus Van Gaasbeek, First Lieut;
Cornelius Beekman, Second Lieut.; Benj’n Elmendorf, Third Lieut

Colonel C. B. Shafer.

REORGANIZATION OF MILITIA.

147

Also a company described as “comprehending the settlements of
Woodstock and Little and Great Shandaken’’ :

Isaac S. Davis, Capt. ; Philip Miller, First Lieut. ; John’s Van Etting, Second
Lieut.

In the Hurley Company, Oct. 23d, 1779, the changes were:

Simon Lefever, Captain, vice Gerardus Hardenbergh, resigned; Samuel Schoon-
maker, First Lieut. ; Job’s Blanchan, Second Lieut. ; Petrus Wynkoop, Ens’g, vice
Van Wagener, resigned.

In the “Light Horse Company,” June 16, 1778, Hooghteling, Captain,
was succeeded by Silvester Salisbury, and was in turn succeeded by
Cornelius C. Newkirk. James Roe became First Lieut.; Abr’m Van
Gaasbeck, Jun’r, Second Lieut., and Abr’m Hoffman, Cornet. Moses
Cantine resigned the captaincy of the Second Company, and Philip Swart
succeeded him, with Abr’m Van Acken as First Lieut.; Hendrickus
Teerpening, Second Lieut., Theophilus Elsworth, Ensign. In the Fifth
Company Jeremiah Snyder succeeded Lucas E. DeWitt, with Petrus
Backer, First Lieut. ; Martynus Humble, Second Lieut. ; Tobias Wyn-
koop, Junr., Ensign. In Bogardus’s First Company, Anthony Freer was
promoted First Lieut. ; Job’s Persin, Second Lieut., and Solomon Has-
brouck. Ensign. In Schoonmaker’s Sixth Company, Isaac Burhans suc-
ceeded Edw. Schoonmaker as First Lieut. ; Ed’w Schoonmaker, Jr., suc-
ceeded Whittaker as Second Lieut.; and Andries Van Louven became
Ensign, vice Isaac Burhans. Presumably other changes were made, but
they are not of record.*

Acker, Jacob
Ackert, Jacob
Ackert, Martin
Amorick, Peter
Artly, Jacob.
Auker, Henry

ENROLLED MEN.

Acker, Solomon
Ackert, Jeremiah
Ackert, Stephen
Amrick, Johannis
Arshly, Jacob
Auchmoudey, David
Auker, Mar.

Badford Andrew Badford, John

Badford, Simeon Baer, Adam

Bauschten, Salomon Barger, Jacob

Bargher, Wilhelmis Barnes, Hans Jury

* The strength of the several companies at that date is reported :

ist Co. Everet Bogardus, Captain; 2 Lieuts., i Ensign, 8 Non-com., 68 Privates.

2d Co. Tan L. DeWitt, Captain; 2 Lieirts., i Ensign, 8 Non-com., 50 Privates.

3d Co. Hendrick Schoonmaker, Captain; 2 Lieuts, i Ensign, 8 Non-com., 50 Privates.

4th Co. Mattys Dederick, Captain; i Lieut., No Ensign, 8 Non-com., 48 Privates.

5th Co. Lucas De Witt, Captain: 2 Lieuts., i Ensign, 8 Non-com., 59 Privates.

6th Co. Moses Cantyn, Captain; 2 Lieuts., 1 Ensign, 8 Non-com., 60 Privates.

7th Co. Gerardus Hardenbergh, Captain; 2 Lieuts., i Ensign, 8 Non-com., 50 Privates.

Totals — Seven Captains, thirteen Lieuts., six Ensigns, fifty-six non-commissioned officers and
385 privates — in all 460.

148

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

ENROLLED MEN. — Continued.

Barnhart, Jeremiah
Barrow, Danell
Bear, Henry
Bear, Jurrie
Beaver Peter
Bedford Andrew
Beekman Benjamin
Beekman John jr
Beekman Thomas
Burger Wilhelmus
Bcrnhart Jeremiah
Bever John
Biar Adam
Black John
Bogardus Peter
Borrow Daniel
Biar Henry
Breadsted Andrew
Brett Peter
Brinck Cornelius C.
Brinck Cornelius
Brinck Jacob jr
Brinck John C.
Brinck Peter C.
Brink John jr
Brink John C.

Brink John T.
Bristead Andrew
Britt Willem
Buckman Benjamin
Buckman John J.
Burhans Abraham
Burhans Benjamin

Burhans Cornelius,
Burhans John
Burhans John jr
Burhans Jonathan
Burhans Samuel
Burhans Tjurck

Callor John
Carnright Aronamis
Carrell George —
Castell William —
Cater Abraham —
Crispel John T
Clearwater Jeremiah
Colgrove Francis
Conjes Jacob
Conns Jacobs
Coolgrove Francis
Corrie Gorg
Crammer Wendell
Crispdl Jacob

Barringer, Jacob
Bear, Coffee
Bear John
Beaver, John
Bekman Hendrick
Bedford Simon
Beekman Hendrick
Beekman John J.
Burger Jacob
Burner Hans Jurry
Besmer Johannis
Bever Peter
Biar John
Bogardus Nicholas
Bogardus Petrus
Biar Coffey
Biar Jury

Breasted

Briett William
Brinck Hendrick
Brinck Jacob
Brinck John
Brinck John J.

Brink Henry
Brink John A
Brink John G.

Brink Peter
Britt Frederick
Bruyer James
Buckman Hendrick
Buckman Thomas
Burhans Barent.
Burhans Cornelius

Burhans Edward!
Burhans John sr
Burhans John W
Burhans Richard
Burhans Thark
Buyer James

Carareych Heronemug
Carrel Jury
Caruyster Silvaster
Castle William
Cator John
Chrispell Abraham
Cole John
Corns Causin
Constaple William
Cool Peter
Corns Causin
Cramer Wandal
Crispell Abraham
Crispell Peterus T.

REORGANIZATION OF MILITIA.

ENROLLED MEN. — Continued.

Crispell Petrus J.
Crispell John J.

Crook Martin
Croose Lenord
Crum Henry W.
Cruyslaar Silvester

Davis John B
Davis Sampson
Davis William
DeBois Jacobus
Debois William
Decker Isaak
Dederick Cato
Dederick John
Dedrick Harmanus
Degraaf John
DeGrave John
DeGrave Henry
Delamater Abraham A.
Delamater Cornelius
Delameter Benjamin
De Lameter John
DeLimature Cor’s J.
Delamater Cornelius
Devenport John
DeWitt Abraham
DeWitt Jacob
DeWitt Johannis
DeWitt John J.

DeWitt Tjerck C.
Dobois James jr
Dubois David
Dubois James jr
Dubois Johannes
Dubois John I.

Dubois John T.

Dubois Robert
Dull Christian
Dumond Cornelius
Dumond Egbert
Dumond Isaac
Dumond John jr
Dumond Peter jr
Dumont Peter jr

Eccor Jeremiah
Eccor Solomon jr
Eckert Henry
Eckert Jeremiah
Eckert Solomon
Eigener Jacob
Eigener Job’s
Eigener Peter P.
Eigeniar Cor’s

Crisple Benjamin
Critsinger John
Croos John
Cross John
Crum Jacob

Davenport John
Davis Joseph
Davis Samuel
Davits John B
Debois James
Decker Ephraim
Decker Petrus
Dederick Gilbert
Dederick Jonathan
Dedrick Jacobus
Degraaf William
DeGrave William
Delafever Coenradt
Delamatter Abraham C.
Delameter Cornells C.
Delameter David
De Lafever Jonathan
De Lemeter Abraham
Deronde Matthew
DeWett John T.

Dewitt Cornelis
Dewitt Jacob J.

Dewitt John
Dewitt Tjerck
Diederick Harmanus
Doyle Charles
Dubois James
Dubois Jeremiah
Dubois John
Dubois John J.

Dubois Matthew
Dubois William
Dumon John jr
Dumond Cornelius jr
Dumond Igenas
Dumond John
Dumond Peter
Dumont Peter

Eccor Martin
Eckerd Stephan
Eckert Jacob
Eckert Marthinus
Eigeneer Frederick
Eigener John
Eigener Peter jr
Eigener William
Eigenor Jacobus

150

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

ENROLLED

Eignuir Peter D.

Eligh Johannis
Elling William
Elmendorph Abraham
Elmendorph Coeuradt C.

Elmendorph Lucas
Elmendorph Peter jr
Eltinge Hendrick
Eltinge Peter
Eltinge William
Emert Matthew,

Emrich Johannis
Emrich Wilhelmus
Emrigh Wilhelmus jr
Enveigh Wilhelmus
Ersh Jacob
Ettings Hendricus
Eygenaar Frederick
Eygenaar John
Eygenaar Willem
Eygener Petrus jr

Falk Johannis

Falkenbargh Abraham

Fanaka Abraham

Fellor Job’s

Felten Benjamin

Felten Johannis jr

Felten Philip

Felter Johannes jr

Felter Petrus

Felton John

Felton, John jr

Fernoo Christian, jr

Feroo Peter

Ferro Stephen

Freres Coenradt

Fiero Christian

Fiero Han Christian

Fiero Peter

Fietsel Johannis

Finis Counradt

Femes Counradt

Folk Johannis

Follant Jacob

Follent Jury

Fowler James

France Cornells

France Jacob jr

France Wilhelmus

Frans Wilhelmus

Frar Gerrit

Freer Benjamin

Freer Hugo ’

Freer Jeremyas

MEN. — Continued.

Eligh Jacob
Elling Hendrick
Elmendorf Coenradt Edward
Elmendorph Benjamin
Elmendorph Coenradt W.
Elmendorph Lucas jr
Elmendorph Petrus
Eltinge John
Eltinge Peter jr
Elyrah Jacob
Emighery Job’s
Emrich Peter
Emrich Wilhelmus jr
Emrugh John
Ernest Matthew
Etting Peter jr
Eygenaar Cornells
Eygenaar Jacobus
Eygenaar Peter
Eygener Peter P.

Falk Wilhelmes
Falkenbargh Job’s
Felie Johannis
Felrs Job’s
Felten Jacob
Felten Peter
Felter Jacob
Felter John
telter Philip
Felton Peterus
Feroo John C.

Ferous Counradt
Ferro William

Fiero

Fiero Christian jr
Fiero John C.

Fiero William
Filton John
Firero Counradt
Foland George
Falkenburgh Abraham
Follen Jury
Fosburgh Abr’m
France Adam
France Jacob
France Johannis
Frans Job’s
Frans William
Freer Abraham
Freer Garret
Freer Jeremiah
Freer Johannis
Freer Peter

REORGANIZATION OF MILITIA.

ENROLLED MEN. — Continued.

Freer Jonathan
Freer Samuel
Freland George
Freligh Hendrick jr
Freligh John

Gee Joseph
Gilbert Justin
Groen Jacob Marius jr
Groen Sylvester Marous
Groone Peter Morris
Groone Silvaster M

Haasbrouck Jacobus
Hanpaugh Peter
Hardenberg Peter
Hasbrouck Jacobus jr
Hasbrouck Jonathan
Heermanse Abraham
Hermanse Edward
Hendricks Jacob
Hendricks Philip
Hendrix Jacob
Hendrixson Jacob
Hendrixson Philip
Hinmans Abr’m
Hommel Abraham
Hommel Jurrie
hommel Petrus
Hoogtaling Wilhelmus jr
Hough taling John
Houghtaling Wilhelmus T.
Houghtaling William F.
Hudson Jonathan
Hummel Abraham
Hummel Harman
Hummel Jurry
Humstead Elias

Japh Jacob
Joung Jeremiah

Karley George
Keater Abraham
Keeler John
Keffer Lourance
Keffer William jr
Kerlach Nicholas
Kersteed Wilhelmis
Kieffar William jr
Kieffer Lowrence
Kiffer William
Kierstead Wilhelmus
Krom Benjamin
Krom Henry B.

Kros Johannes
Krum Hendrick B.

Frees Johannis
Freligh Hendrick
Freligh Samuel
Frier Benjamin
Frier Samuel

Gilbert Ephriam
Groen Jacob Marius
Groen Peter Marius
Groen William Marius
Groone Saberster Mars
Groone William Monis

Hance Willem
Hardenbergh Lewis
Hasbrouck Daniel
Hasbrouck John
Hasbrouck Solomon
Hermanse John
Hendricks John
Hendrickson Johannis
Hendrix Job’s
Hendrixson John
Herrington Moses
Hodler Solomon
Hommel Hermanns
Hommel Jurrie jr
Hooghtalin William jr
Houghtaling Jeremiah
Houghtaling Thomas
Houghtaling William T.
Huddlor Salomon
Huffman Abr’m
Hummel George jr
Hummel Harman jr
Hummel Peter
Hymback Peter
Hynpals Peter

Japle Jacob
Jurrie Hans

Kaltor Abraham
Kaeter John
Keffer Ballije
Keffer William
Kellenburgh Isaac jr
Kersteed John
Kiefer Baltis
Kieffer William
Kierstead John
Kodler Solomon
Krom Jacob
Kroom Hendrick
Krous Leonard
Krum Hendric W.

152

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

ENROLLED MEN. — Continued,

Lafever Jonathan
Lamendyck John
Langendyke Cornelis
Langyare Christian
Lanjaar Willem
Lefever Conrad
Legg Samuel
Lomgendyck Cor’s
Louw Abraham
Loux Cor’s
Low Abr’m
Low Abraham C.
Low Cor’s
Low Jacobus
Low John C.

Low Tjerck
Luyks Peter jr

McCay John
McCleen John
McGroone Peter
McKiney Alexander
Magee Peter
Magee Samuel
Markul Johannis
Marsial John
Martin Cor’s B.
Martin Joseph
Masten Abraham jr
Masten Cornelius B.
Masten Daniel
Masten Johannes B.
Masten Johannes E.
Mastin Dainel
Materstock Jacob
Materstock Peter
Matterstock John
Menkelar Cor’s
Merkel Johannis
Meyer Peter L.
Minkalar Cornelius
Mire Stephen
Mosten Joseph
Muories Johannis jr
Myer Abraham
Myer Benjamin jr
Myer Cornelis
Myer Ephraim
Myer Henry
Myer Peter
Myer Peter B.

Myer Peter T.

Myer Thunis
Myer Stephen jr

Lamendyck Cor’s
Langendyck John
Langyan William
Lanjaar Christopher
Larway Peter
Legg John jr
Lits Willem
Lousk Peter jr
Louw Cornelius
Loux Peter W.

Low Abr’m A.

Low Abraham E.

Low Frederick
Low Johannis
Low Peter
Luyks Cornelis
Luyks Peter W.

McClean John
McFarling Andrew
McKenney Alexander
Maderstock Adam
Magee Peter jr
Maris Robert
Mars Robert
Marten Joseph
Martin Job’s B.
Masten Abraham
Masten Abraham A.
Masten Cornelius C.
Masten Hendrick
Masten Johannes C.
Masters Joseph
Materslock Johannis
Materstock Johannis
Matterslock Adam
Mauer Jacob
Menkial Johannes
Meyer Christiaen
Mickel John
Minkelar Harmanus
Morris Robert
Mouries Jacob
Mousier Jacob
Myer Benjamin
Myer Christian
Myer Counright
Myer Hendericus
Myer Johannis jr
Myer Peter jr
Myer Peter L.

Myer Stephan
Myer William jr

REORGANIZATION OF MILITIA.

153

ENROLLED MEN. — Continued.

Neukeuk Charles

Oosterhaude Hendrick
Oosterhoudt Jacob
Oosterhoudt James
Oosterhoudt Peter
Oosterhoudt Petrus
Oosterhoudt Samuel
Oosterhoudt Willem
Osterhoudt Abraham
Osterhoudt Edward
Osterhout Abraham
Osterhout William
Ostrander Henry
Ostrander Samuel

Parsel Jeremiah
Percal Cornelis
Perse Cornelius
Persen Cornelius
Persen John J.

Persey Cor’s
Phenix Abraham
Plough Hendrick
Plough Tunis
Post Abraham
Post Cor’s
Post Isaac
Post Jacobus
Post John jr
Post Marteynus
Post Martin jr
Poust Cornelius

Rechtmeyer Hermanus
Rechtmyer George
Rechtmyer Johannis
Rechtmyer Peter
Richley Andrew
Rickie Andrew
Raase John jr
Rossell Lodewick
Rouce Benjamin
Russell Ludwigh

Salisbury Silvester
Schapmis William
Schepmoes William
Schoemaker Nicolas
Schoomaker Samuel
Schoonmaker David
Schoonmaker Edward E.
Schoonmaker Egbert C.
Schoonmaker Johannis
Schoonmaker John E.
Schoonmaker Thark

Newkerk Benjamin.

Oosterhoudt Benjamin
Oosterhoudt Jacobus
Oosterhoudt John
Oosterhoudt Peter jr
Oosterhoudt Petrus L.
Oosterhoudt Teunis
Oosterhout Joseph
Osterhoudt Benjamin
Osterhoudt Peter
Osterhout Samuel
Osterhoutt Elias
Ostrander James

Patterson Moses
Periall Cor’s
Persell Jeremiah
Persen John
Persen Matthew
Perslow Henry
Ploegh Teunis
Plough Henry
Polhamus Daniel
Post Abraham A.

Post Henry jr
Post Isaac jr
Post John
Post Marte jr
Post Martin
Post Samuel

Rechtmyer Coenrad
Rechtmyer George jr
Rechtmyer Jurry W.
Richley Jacob
Richtmyer Johannis
Riehley Jacob
Roosa John jr
Root Henry
Rouw Benjamin

Sax Peter
Schepmoes John
Schitt Solomon
Schoemaker Petrus
Schoonmaiker Neh’s
Schoonmaker Edward
Schoonmaker Egbert jr
Schoonmaker Hisakia
Schoonmaker Johannis jr
Schoonmaker Nicholas
Schoonmaker Thark jr

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

Schoonmaker Tjurk
Schryber Albertus
Schryber Stephan
Schut Solomon
Scryer Stephen
Scyriver John
Shears Andrew
Short Hendrick
-Short Petrus
Sleght Hendricus B.
Sleght Petrus
Sleght Teunis
Snyder Abraham
Snyder Benjamin
Snyder Hendricus
Snyder Johannes
Snyder John
Snyder Martinas
Snyder Solomon
Sperling John
Stattas Henry
Steenbergh Thomas
Stoughtenburgh Isaac jr
Suyland Johannis
Swart Cornelius
Swart Cornelius L.
Swart Teunis
Swart Tobias

Tappan Peter
Teerpening Gerrit
Teerpening Simon
Teerpenning Jacobus
Teerpenning Willem;
Ten Eyck Dirck
Terpenney Hendrick
Thompson Mathew jr
Thompson William
Thomson Matthew jr
Trimper Wilhelmus
Trompor Job’s.
Trompour Valentine
Trumpour Jacob
Turck Johannes
Turk John

Ulmstead Elias.

Valck Johannes
Valkenburgh Abraham
Van Aken Benjamin
Van Aken Eliphas
Van Aken Isaac
Van Aken Peter G.

Van Beuren Philip

ENROLLED MEN. — Continued.

Schriver Johannes
Schryber Martinus
Schut Christian
Scryer Albertus
Scryver Marten
Share Andries
Shoe Augustus
Short Henry
Shue Augusteane
Sleght Salomon
Smedes Peter B.
Snyder Abraham jr
Snyder Christian
Snyder Henry
Snyder Johannes M.
Snyder John jr
Snyder Martyn
Sperling George
Staats Hendrick
Steenbargh Thomas G.
Steinbergh John
Sulant John
Swart Benjamin
Swart Cornelius jr
Swart Petrus
Swart Thomas
Swart William

Tarpenning Willem
Teerpening Petrus
Teerpenning Abraham
Teerpenning Jacobus jr
Tenbroeck John
Ten Eyck Richard
Thompson Jonathan
Thompson Matthew Edward
Thomson Jonathan
Tremper, Jacob
Trompor Johannis jr
Trumbonner John
Turck Hendrick ,

Turck Johannes jr
Tutsell Job’s.

Valk Wilhelmus

Valkenbourgh John

Van Aken Cato

Van Aken Gideon

Van Aken Peter

Van Aken John

Van Beuschoten Solomon

REORGANIZATION OF MILITIA.

ENROLLED MEN. — Continued.

Van Bunscholin Solomon
Van Burin Tobias
Van Gaasbeck, Abraham W.
Van Gaasbeek, John jr
Van Gasbuck, Peter
Van Hunbargh, John
Van Keuran, Cornelius M.
Van Keuren, Abraham
Van Keuren, Matthew
Van Keuren, Tjerck
Van Kunn, Mathias
Van Leuven, John
Van Leuwen, Zacheriah
Van Steenbargh, John jr
Van Steenbargh, Peterus
Van Steenbargh, Tobias, jr.
Van Steenbergh Benjamin
Van Steenbergh Henry-
Van Steenbergh Matthew
Van Steenbergh Pontis
Van Steenbergh Thomas
Van Steenberghn Tobyes
Van Vleit Arie
Van Vliet John
Van Vliet Tjerck
Van Wagenen Abraham VA
Van Wagenen Henry
Van Wagenen Johannis J.

Van Waggoner

Van Waggoner Benjamin
Van Waggoner Jacob jr
Vide John
Vollant Jurrie

Weaver John
Wells Cornells
Wells Jacobus
Weis Peter
Whitaker Edward
Whitaker James
Whiteaker Abraham
Whiteaker Benjamin
Whiteaker Petrus
Whitteker John
Wiest Peterus
Will Christian
Windfield Benjamin
Winfield David
Winna John
Winne Peter A.

Winnen Arent
Winnen Cornells ‘

Winnen James
Winnen Peter
Winnen Peter J.

Van Buren Philip
Van Etten John
Van Gaasbeek John
Van Gasbeck Abr’m jr
Van Gesbuck John jr
Van Keuran Cornelius
Van Keuran Matthew jr
Van Keuren Gerrit
Van Keuren Philip
Van Kunn Abraham
Van Leuven Andries
Van Leuven John jr
Van Schayck Anthony
Van Steenbargh Paulus
Van Steenbargh Tobias
Van Steenbergh Abraham
Van Steenbergh Dirick
Van Steenbergh John
Van Steenbergh Peter
Van Steenberg Poulis
Van Steenbergh Thomas jr
Van Steenberghn Tobyes jr
Van Vliet George
Van Vliet Jurry
Van Wagenen Abraham B.
Van Wagenen Benjamin
Van Wagenen Jacob jr.

Van Wagenen Ysack Y.
Van Waggoner Abr’m W.
Van Waggoner Henry
Van Waggoner Job’s I.
Vollant George
Vosburgh Abraham.

Wells Christian
Wells Henry
Wells James
Wenne Peter A.

Whitaker Edward jr
Whitaker Philip
Whiteaker Abraham jr
Whiteaker Jacobus
Whittaker James W.

Wiest Peter
Wiliker Petrus
Williams John
Winfield Daniel
Winfield Simon
Winne Benjamin
Winne Peter J.

Winnen Arent jr
Winnen Jacobus
Winnen John
Winnen Peter jr
Winnia Arant

156

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

ENROLLED MEN.—

Winnia Benjamin
Winnia Jacobus
Winnia Peter
Winnia Peter A.
Winns William
Witiker James I.
Witteker John
Wolf Adam
Wolfent Jeremiah
Wolfent John
Wolff John
Wolven Johannis jr
Wolvin Adam
Wolvin Johanis H.
Wolvin John H.
Wynkoop Hezekiah
Wynkoop Peter

Yaple Hanniele
Yeoman Moses
Yepeel Jacob
York Daniel
Young Jeremiah

Winnia Cor’s
Winnia James
Winnia Peter jr
Winnia Peter L.
Witecker Jacob
Witteker Abraham
Woester George
Wolfen John
Wolfent Job’s
Wolfet John
Wolven Jeremiah
Wolven John
Wolvin Jeremiah
Wolvin Johannis jr
Wynkoop Evert
Wynkoop John jr
Wynkoop Willem

Yaple Jacob
Yeomens Moses
Yeuple Haneie
Young Abraham
Yourk Moses.

James H. Everett

THE SECOND OR SOUTH END REGIMENT.

157

CHAPTER X.

THE SECOND OR SOUTH END REGIMENT.

The Second or South End Regiment, extending over the territory
west from the Hudson along the original south county line from
the mouth of Murderers’ Creek to the Delaware, was the south
territorial part of the previous colonial second regiment of which Thomas
Ellison was colonel prior to the opening of the Revolution. It was em-
inently the home regiment of the Clintons, James, George, and Dr.
Charles, who had grown up with the sons of a large colony of Scotch-
Irish immigrants whose fathers had accompanied Colonel Charles Clinton
thither in 1729. Strong in their personality and in their social relations,
James and George became still stronger by their marriages, the first with
a daughter of Egbert De Witt of Paenpacht on the Delaware, and the
second with a sister of Christopher Tappen of Kingston, of Dutch for-
bears. Under these conditions there "was “fight” in the regiment from
the beginning to the close of the Revolution. In no other regimental
district was the militia more active, and in none were the enlistments
in the Continental Army so large. The Field and Staff of the regiment
was commissioned October 25th, 1775 :

James Clinton, Colonel,

James McClaughrey, Lieut. Colonel.

Jacob Newkirk, Major (ist.)

Moses Phillips, Major (2d)

George Denniston, Adjutant,

Alexander Trimble, Qr. Master.

Colonel Clinton having been appointed Brigadier-General in the Con-
tinental Line, the Field and Staff of the regiment was reconstructed
March 23d, 1778, by the appointment of

James McClaughrey, Colonel,

Jacob Newkirk, Lieut. Colonel.

Moses Phillips, Major, ^

George Denniston, Adjutant.

•Peter Crance, ist Qr. Master.

Evins Wharry, 2d Quarter Master.

Colonel McClaughrey, who was in command of the regiment as Lieu-
tenant Colonel under Clinton, was taken prisoner in the fierce battle at

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

158

Fort Montgomery, Oct. 6th, 1777, and remained in captivity until about
the close of the war, during which time the command devolved upon Lieut.
Colonel Newkirk, from which fact the designation, “Newkirk’s Regi-
ment” is frequently met in records. As primarily enrolled the companies
composing the regiment were:

1st Co. East side Willkill — Captain Samuel Watkins; Daniel Crawford, First
Lieut; Stephen Harlow, Second Lieutenant; Henry Smith, Ensign. (Daniel Craw-
ford should read David Crawford.)

2d Co. New Windsor (Moodna) — John Nicoll, Captain; Francis Mandeville,
First Lieut; Leonard D. Nicoll, Ensign.

3d Co. Hanover Precinct — William Jackson, Captain; Henry Van Keuren, First
Lieut. ; Henry Munnel, Second Lieut. ; Andrew Neely, Ensign (the latter so entered
on Precinct minutes).

4th Co. Hanover Precinct — Mathias Felter (Felton), Captain; Henry Smith,
First Lieut; Johannis Newkirk, Second Lieut.; William Crist, Ensign.

5th Co. Wallkill Precinct (between the Willkill and Shawangunk Kill) — William
Faulkner, Captain; Edward McNeal, First Lieut.; John Wilkin, Second Lieut.;
John Faulkner, Ensign.

6th Co. Mamakating Precinct (Paenpacht) — Jacob Rutzen De Witt, Captain;
Abraham Cuddeback, Jr., First Lieut.; Robert Cooke, Second Lieut; Samuel King,
Ensign.

7th Co. Hanover Precinct — Cadwallader C. Colden, Captain ; James Milliken,
First Lieut.; John Hunter, Second Lieut; Matthew Hunter, Ensign. (Colden de-
clined, and company reorganized — James Milliken, Captain; John Hunter, First
Lieutenant; Matthew Hunter, Second Lieutenant; Robert Burns, Ensign.)

8th Co. New Windsor Precinct — John Belknap, Captain; Silas Wood, First
Lieut; Edward Falls, Second Lieut.; James Stickney, Ensign. (Belknap entered
Continental Line. Co. reconstructed — James Umphrey, Captain; Silas Wood, First
Lieut. ; James Kernaghan, Second Lieut. ; Richard Wood, Ensign.

9th Co. New Windsor Precinct (Little Britain) — William Telford, Captain;
James Faulkner, First Lieut ; Alex’r Beaty, Second Lieut. ; John Burnett, Ensign.

loth Co. Mamakating Precinct — John Crage, Captain; Manuel Gonsales, First
Lieut ; William Rose, Second Lieut. ; Isaac Roosa, Ensign.

nth Co. Wallkill Precinct — Wm. Denniston, Captain; Benj. Veal, First Lieut;
Joseph Jillet, Second Lieut; David Corwin, Junr., Ensign. (Northwest of Little
Shawangunk Kill.)

i2th Co. Wallkill Precinct (between Wallkill and Little Shawangunk Kill) —
Isaiah Veal, Captain; Israel Wickham, First Lieut; John Dunning, Second Lieut;
Jonathan Owen, Ensign.

13th Co. Coshecton Company— Bazaliel Tyler, Junr.,* Captain; Nathaniel Reevs,
First Lieut; Moses Thomas, Second Lieut; Nathan Mitchell, Ensign.

* Capt. Bazaliel Tyler was the first man killed in the battle of Minisink, July 2zd, 1779- He
was in the advanced guard. He is usually credited to the Goshen regiment, to which he never
belonged, nor did his company.

THE SECOND OR SOUTH END REGIMENT.

159

On the i6th of March, 1776, Lieut. Col. McClaughrey reported the

strength of the regiment as follows :

First Company — Capt. Watkins.

Commitioned Officers, 4

Non-Commitioned Officers, 8

Clark & Drummer, 2

Privits, 49

Minute Men, 19

Second Company — Capt. Nicklos, Esq.

Commitioned Officers, 4

Non-Commitioned Officers, 8

Clark, Drum & Fife, 3

Privits, 60

Minute Men, 17

Third Company — Capt. William Jackson.

Commitioned Officers, 3

Non-Commitioned Officers, 7

Clark & Drummer, 2

Privits, 68

The Above has been in the Minute Servis And nov/
Returns themselves as such.

Commitioned Officer, i

Non-Commitioned Officer, i

Privits, 32

Forth Company — Capt. Mathew Felter.
Commitioned Officers,
Non-Commitioned Officers,
Clark, Drum & Fife,

Privits,

Minute Men,

Commitioned,

Privits,

1 14

Fifth Company — William Falkner, Capt.
Commitioned Officers,
Non-Commitioned Officers,
Clark, Drum & i'ife
Privits,

Minute Men,

Sixth Company — Jacob Dewitt, Capt.

Commitioned Officers, 4

Non-Commitioned Officers, 8

Clark, Drummer & Fife, 3

Privits, 51

Torys, 2

Minute Men, o

i6o

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

Seventh Company — Ja Milegen, Capt.

Commitioned Officers, 4

Non-Commitioned Officers, 8

Clark, Drum & Fife, 3

Privits, 55

Minute Men, 15

Eighth Company— John Belknap, Capt.

Commitioned Officers, 4

Non-Commitioned Officers, 8

Clark, Drum & Fife, 3

Privits, 46

Minute Men, 6

Listed in the provincials, 14

Ninth Company — ^William Telford, Capt.

Commitioned Officers, 4

Non-Commitioned Officers, 7

Clark, Drum & Fife, 3

Privits, 54

The Above has turned out Minute Men the ist of
This Inst.

Listed in the provincial, 7

Militia, 21

Tenth Company — John Crage, Capt.

Commitioned Officers, 4

Non-Commitioned Officers, 8

Clark & Drummer, 2

Rank and File, 46

Minute Men, 0

3
35
00

4
8

963

253

Eleventh Company — William Denniston,
Commitioned Officers,
Non-Commitioned Officers,
Clark, Drum & Fife,

Rank and File,

Minute Men,

Twelfth Company — Isaiah Veail, Capt.
Commitioned Officers,
Non-Commitioned Officers,
Clark & Drum,

Rank and File,

Minute Men,

Total,

Minute Men,

Militia,

710

Addison E. Dederick.

THE SECOND OR SOUTH END REGIMENT.

i6i

The following list of the enrolled men of the regiment is taken from
'‘New York in the Revolution.” It is presumed to be correct “as far as it
goes.” In making searches for particular names reference should also
be made to the “Archives of the Revolution” as well as to the lists of
other regiments.

ENROLLED MEN.

Abrahams, John Adams Chester

Adcock, William Atherston Joel

Bodle, William
Barber, John
Barkley, Thomas
Bayard, James
Bealy, John '

Beatty, James
Beatty, William
Baty, Arthur
Beaty, Robert
Belknap, David
Belknap, Isaac, Jr,
Belknap, Jonathan
Belknap, Thomas, Jr.
Bennet Benjamin
Biram Asa
Black John
Bodine Lewiss
Bodle William
Bookstaver Frederick
Bookstaver Jacob Jr.
Booth Thomas
Boreland Thomas
Boyd Robert
Brannen Ruben
Brewster Samuel
Brockway Jesse
Brooks Jeremiah
Brooks William
Brown Duncan
Brown James H.
Brown Neal
Brurdish Gilbert
Buchanan Alexander
Buchanan John
Buice James
Bunet Jenjamin
Burnet Patrick
Burnet Thomas
Burns Robert
Buts Jacob

Baily John
Barber Timothy
Barton Elijah
Baylis Nehemiah
Beatty Archibald
Beatty Thomas
Beaty Alexander
Beaty John
Belknap, Benjamin
Belknap Isaac
Belknap Jeduthan
Belknap Jonathan Jr.
Bell Mathew
Bennet John
Black James
Blizzard Oliver
Bodle Samuel
Boides Robart Jr.
Bookstaver Jacob Sr.
Booth John
Boreland Charles
Boyd James
Boyd Samuel
Brewster John
Britnow Henry
Brooke Jeremiah
Brooks John
Brown Archabald
Brown Gilbert
Brown John
Brundage William
Buchanan Robert
Buchanan James
Buchanan Robert
Bull Moses
Burnet John
Burnet Robert
Burns Francis
Burns William

Caldwell James
Camble John
Campble Edward

Calwell William
Campbell Levi
Campble Ezekiel

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

162

ENROLLED MEN. — Continued.

Canfield John
Carman Yoest
Carney Stephen
Carskaden Thomas
Case Benjamin
Chandler Enos
Clark Jeremiah
Clark James
Clark Phineas
Clemons Daniel
Cobb Asa
Coddinton William
Coleman David
Congo David
Conkling John
Content Moses
Cook Thomas
Corethers John
Corwin David
Corwin Eli
Cox Jeremy
Cox Reeves
Cox William Jr.
Crawford Alexander
Crawford John
Crist Abraham
Crist David
Crist Henry Jr.

Crist Philip
Crodethers John
Cross John

Cuddeback, Abraham Sr.
Cuddeback, Abraham A.
Cuddeback, James
Cuddeback, William
Curtenius, Peter, Jr.
Curtice, Noah
Curwin, Barnabas

Daily, Samuel Jr.

Daly, David
Darkeas John
Davidson John
Davis Pathick
Davis William
Dealls William
Decay Jacob
Decker Evert
Decker Martinas
Den Christopher
Denn William
Denniston Alexander
Denniston William
Denniston John
Denton Joseph

Cantine Moses
Carney Barnabas
Carpenter William
Carter Luke
Caulkin Oliver
Clark Henry
Clark John
Clark Joseph
Clawater Tice
Clark Henry
Coddinton Benjamin
Coddinton Joseph
Coleman John
Conkling Ananias
Content Benjamin
Cook John
Cook William
Cortwright Silvester
Corwin Eli
Cox Benjamin
Cox John
Cox William
Crane Benjamin
Crawford James
Crawford Samuel
Crist Daniel
Crist Henry Sr.

Crist Matinis
Crist Stophonis
Crons Adam
Cross Robert
Cuddeback Abraham Jr.
Cuddeback Benjamin
Cuddeback Peter
Currenton Richard
Curtice Benejah
Curtice Thomas

Daily Samuel
Dales John
Daly John
David Henry
Davis John
Davis Thomas
Dealls John
Dearkis John
Decker David
Decker Isaac
Defrees James
Denman Isaac
Denna Hinnery
Denniston Charles
Denniston James
Denton Isaac

THE SECOND OR SOUTH END REGIMENT.

ENROLLED MEN. — Continued.

Depuy Benjamin
Depuy John
Devans James
Dickarson Benjamin
Dill David
Docksey James
Douglass James
Douty Benjamin
Drake Joseph
Dunen Samuel
Dunn George
Durham Andrew

Eager John
Easten Jeremiah
Edmondstin James
Elder Joseph
Ellison David
Elsworth Henry
Everit Nehemiah

Falls William -
Finch James
Fitzjerrild Jeremiah
Frashor William
Fulton Thomas

Gage William
Gale Moses
Galloway John
Giles Charles
Gillispy David
Godfry David
Goldsmith Cabeb
Galow Christopher
Galow Joseph
Green Daniel
Green John
Gumaer Elias
Gumaer Peter 2d.
Gunsalis Daniel
Gunsalis Samuel

Haines Charles
Hains David
Hains John B.
Halsey Jabas
Hanesey James
Hanyon Garret
Harlow William
Harris John
Hart Andrew
Hays James
Hegerman Thomas
Helms Vincent

Denton Samuel
Depuy Benjamin Jr.
Depuy Moses
Dick Thomas
Dickson Androw
Dill John
Donavan Daniel
Douglass William
Doxey James
Duffy John
Dunlap James
Dunn William
Duryee Jacob K.

Eager William
Eastman Tilten
Edmondston William
Elis James
Eliott John
English William
Evret John

Falkner William
Finley John
Fowler Stephen
Fuller Jepotha

Gale Richard
Gale Samuel
Garisson Nathaniel
Gillispie Mathew
Gillispy John
Godfry David Jr.
Goldsmith Stephen
Galow John
Green Ebenezer
Green Israel
Green John Jr.
Gumaer Jacob
Gumar Ezeckiel
Gunsalis Manuel

Hains Benjamin
Hains John
Halabut John
Halstead Gershpm
Hanmer Johii
Harden Jolm
Harris George
Harskal Jonathan
Hasbrook Cornelius
Headin James
Helms Daniel
Hinneris Aron

164

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

ENROLLED MEN. — Continued.

Holsey Zephaniah
Homan John
Hopkins Garner
Horton David
Horton Joseph
Howell Stephen
Hubbard Joseph
Humphrey David
Humphrey William
Humphry Oliver
Hutson Richard

Inglis John

Jackson Silas
Jaques David
Johnson David
Johnson Robert
Jones Augustus

Keen Jacob
Kernaghan Alexander
Ketcham James
Ketcham Philip
Kidd Robert
King Clement
King Stephen
Knapp Zephaniah

Lee Jepthah
Lee Solomen
Lewers Williams
Low James
Lowdy John

McArter John
McCallon Thomas
McClaughry John
McClotham Joseph
McConnely John
McCord James
McCurdy Archibald
McDonal Alexander
Mc.Dowell James
Mc.Ever Daniel
McGown John
McKessock Thomas
McMaster James
McMillian Mathew
McNeas Clark
McNeely David
Mc.Nish Clark
Mains Francis
Mandevil David
Mapes Henry
Mapes Smith

Homan Benjamin
Homan Pheneas
Hortin Jacob
Horton John
Horton Silas
Hubart Joseph
Hulse John
Humphrey George
Humphry Charles
Huse John

Inglis William

Jagger David
Jillett John
Johnson George
Johnson David
Jones Philip

Kelso Henry
Kernaghan Charles
Ketcham Joseph
Kidd James
KilBurn James
King Nicholas
Kingham Thomas
Knox George

Lee Jonathan
Leonard Henry
Liscomb John
Low Peter
Lusk Francis

Me. Arthur Neal
McCalough Alaugh
McClean John
McCollam Matt
McCord Andrew
McCreary Alexander
McDawell William
McDowel Thomas
Mc.Enty Michael
Mc.Garagh John
McKee Thomas
McLoy Vv^illiam
McMichel John
Mc.Munn John
Mc.Neas George
Mc.Nes Daniel
Mc.Swaney Daniel
Mandevil Cornelius
Mandevil John
Mapes Samuel
Mapes William

THE SECOND OR SOUTH END REGIMENT.

165

ENROLLED MEN. — Continued.

Marshall David
Martin John
Mathers James
Meloy James
Miller Elias
Milliken Alexander
Milliken James
Mills Daniel
Mills Jonathan
Milspaugh Adam
Milspaugh Jacob
Milspaugh Philip
Milspaugh Tice
Moffatt William
Monnel James
Moore James
Moore William
More John
More Nathan Jr.
Morrison Daniel
Morrison John

Neal Mal’h
Neely John
Neely Thomas
Newkirk Hendrick
Newston Robbart
Nicholson Daniel
Nickoll William Sr.
Nobel Jabes

Obrien John
Oliver Thomas
Overton James
Owen David
Owen Jonathan Jr.
Owen Nathaniel
Owen Solomon
Owens Eleazer

Palmer Henry
Parks Amos
Parshall John
Patterson James
Patton James
Perry David
Polley William
Post Zebulon
Price John

Reed John
Reeder Charles
Reeve Nathaniel Jr
Rickey Andrew
Rittenbergh Aron
Roberts Daniel

Martin Charles
Mathers Ebenezer
Matthews Amasa
Miller Edward
Miller John
Milliken Hugh
Millor Ezrah
Mills Jacob
Mills John
Milspaugh Benjamin
Milspaugh Jonathan
Milspaugh Philip Jr.
Moffat Samuel
Moncrief Charles
Moor William
Moore Robert
More David
More Nathan
More William
Morrison James
Mould Christopher

Neely, Edward
Neely, John, Jr.
Newkirk, Adam
Newman Sender
Nichols, William
Nicholson, Thomas
Nikols, Nathan

Oliver, David
Outerman, Stephen
Owen Amasa
Owen, Eleazer
Owen, Joshua
Owen Oliver
Owens Amasa
Owin John

Park William
Pars Jonathan
Parshall Jonathan
Patterson Samuel
Pelton Gideon
Perry John
Porter Thomas
Potter Aaron
Puff John

Reed Moses
Reeve Ely Jr.
Rhoads Thomas
Ritenbergh Addam
Robert Danel
Robertson Benjamin

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

i66

ENROLLED MEN. — Continued.

Robinson William

Rocefeller J — ndr.

Rockefella Christian i .

Rockefella Henry

Rockefella John i

Rockwell Samuel

Roe Samuel /

Rogers Moses

Rogers Robert ; '

Rogers Solomon

Rogers William !

Roosa Cornelius

Roose Aldert

Roose Jacob

Rosa Evert

Rosa Jacob

Rose Jacob ; ; i

Rose Samuel

Sanders John ; ;

Satan Jonathan

Sayer Stephen ' •

Sayres Stephen

Scates Eartholomy

Scavon Mills

Scott Archibald

Scott James

Scott William

Seely Bezaleel Jr.

Seely Elijah

Seely Israel

Seely Samuel

Sergeant Nathan

Seybolt John , , ; ;

Seybolt John Sr.

Shaw William

Shay John

Shea George

Sheerman Henry

Shilp Johonis

Shutter Robert

Siah, Indian

Sickels Zachariah

Siears, Benjamin (Sears?) f

Siears John

Siers, Elethan

Siers, Samuel

Simeril Robert

Simmonds Jacob

Simpson, Peter

Sinsabok Henry Sr.

Sinsabok, William

Skinner Abner

Slott, Cornelius ’ "

Slott John

Slott, John Sr. " '

Slott John Jr.

Slott, Jonas ‘

Sly John

Sly, Samuel

Sly William

Smedes, Moses

Smiley James

Smith, Bastian

Smith David

Smith, David Jr.

Smith George

Smith, Jacob

Smith James

Smith, Jeremiah

Smith John

Smith, Jonathan

Smith Jonathan Jr.

Smith, Joseph

Smith Mathew

Smith, Nathan

Smith Samuel

Smith, Simon

Smith Stephen.

Smith, William

Southerland, James

Sprague, Andrev/

Springsted James

Springsteen, Henery

Squirrel Jacob

Stag, John

Stanton Rufus

Steel, Alexander

Stewart, Alexander

Stewart, Robert

Stickney James

Stinson William

Stout David

Strickland Eli

Strong John

Stubs William

Swarthout Cornelius

Swarthout Gerad

Swarthout James

Swarthout Philip

Swartwoud Jacobus

Clarence P. Hendricks.

THE SECOND OR SOUTH END REGIMENT.

167

ENROLLED Continued.

Taylor Abraham
Thomas Ephraim
Thomson John
Thorn Samuel
Totton James
Travis Ezekial
Trewilliger Isaac
Trewilliger Math
Trumpoor Nicholas
Tucker James
Turner John

Vail Alsop
Vail Obediah
Vanfleet Daniel
Vaninwagen Jacob
Van Inwegen Herman
Van Vara Cort

Wair William
Wallice John
Wastval Joseph
Watkins Thomas
Welch John
Weller Lod’k
Westbrook Terrie V.
Westlick Benjamin
Whary James
Wheat Solomon
Wheler Gilbert
White James
Wickham William
Williams Isaac
Willing Frederick
Wilson Andrew
Winter Ezra
Wood Benjamin
Wood John
Wood Samuel
Wood William
Woods Benjamin
Woodward Hezekiah Jr.
Wooley Charles
Wright Williams

Young Benjamin

Taylor James
Thomas John
Thorn Obadiah
Tillford Alexander
Totten Thomas
Tremper George
Trewilliger John
Trimble John
Trumpore Peter
Turner Hugh
Tuttle Borzila

Vail Josiah
Vanburah Court
Vaninwagen Cornelius
Van Inwegen David
Van Nosdall John
Vanwey Henry

Wallace William
Wastbrook Abraham
Watkins Ephraim
Webb Janathan
Welch Thomas
Wesbrook Abraham
Westlake Samuel
Westlick George
Whaet Amos
Wheelar David
Whit Geames
White Silas
Wilkins Daniel
Williams Jonas
Willoughby John
Wilson William
Wood Alexander
Wood Daniel
Wood Robert
Wood Silas
Woodruff John
Woodward Hezekiah
Wool Ellis
Wright David

Young Charles

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

i68

CHAPTER XL

THE THIRD OR WESTERN REGIMENT.

The Third or Western Regiment was organized as were the other
regiments of the county, Oct. 25th, 1775. As then constituted
its Field and Staff were :

Levi Pawling, Colonel.

Jacob Hoornbeck, Lieut. Colonel
Johannis Cantine, ist Major.

Joseph Hasbrouck, 2d Major.

David Bevier, Adjutant.

Jacobus Bruyn, Junr., Qr. Master.

Surgeon, John Crieger.

On the 2ist of February, 1778, in consequence of the resignation of
Colonel Pawling, who had been appointed First Judge of the Court of
Common Pleas of the county, promotions were made:

Johannis Cantine, Colonel,

Joseph Hasbrouck, Lieut. Colonel,
vice Hoornbeck, deceased.

Jacob Hasbrouck, 2d Major, vice
Joseph Hasbrouck, promoted.

The primary companies were:

1st Co. Marbletown, S. E. District — Cornelius E. Wynkoop, Captain; Chas. W.
Brodhead, First Lieut; Moses M. Cantine, Second Lieut.; Jacob Chambers, Ensign.

2nd Co. Marbletown, N. E. District — Frederick Schoonmaker, Jr., Captain;
Benjamin Louw, First Lieut; Jacobus Rosekrans, Second Lieut.; John C. De Witt,
Ensign.

3d Co. Rochester — Petrus Schoonmaker, Captain ; Philip Hoornbeck, First Lieut. ;
Cornelius Hardenbergh, Second Lieut. ; Dirck Westbrooke, Ensign.

4th Co. Rochester — ^Andries Bevier, Captain ; Richard Brodhead, First Lieut ;
Reuben De Witt, Second Lieut; Johannis C. De Witt, Ensign. Southwesternmost
Dist.

5th Co. Rochester — ^Jochem Schoonmaker, Jr., Captain; John Depuy, First Lieut;
Cornelius Van Wagenen, Second Lieut.; Zacharias Rosekrans, Ensign.

6th Co. Rochester — Benj. Kortright, Captain; Dirick Westbrook, First Lieut.;
Fred’k Westbrook, Second Lieut. ; Jacob Hoornbeck, Ensign,

7th Co., New Paltz — Lewis J. Du Bois, Captain; John A. Hardenbergh, First
Lieut; Matthew Le Fever, Second Lieut.; Mathusalim Du Bois, Ensign. Called
the Southern District Co.

THE THIRD OR WESTERN REGIMENT.

169

8th Co. New Paltz — Jacob Hasbrouck, Jr., Captain; Abraham Deyo, Jr., First
Lieut.; Petrus Hasbrouck, Second Lieut.; Samuel Bevier, Ensign. Called the North-
ern District Co.

9th Co. New Paltz — Peleg Ransom, Captain; Nathaniel Potter, First Lieut.;
Hugh Cole, Second Lieut.; William Danielson, Ensign. Called the East District
Company.

The southeast Marbletown Company, on the appointment of its Cap-
tain, Cornelius E. Wynkoop, as Major of the Ulster Regiment of Minute
Men, was reconstructed by the promotion of Charles W. Brodhead, Cap-
tain ; Jacob De Lamater, First Lieut. ; Moses M. Cantine, Second Lieut. ;
Jacob Chambers, Ensign. In asking for the promotion of Brodhead, the
company also asked that the company should be designated as Grenadiers.
The petition bears the endorsement of the Committee of Safety (March
20th, 1776) : “Petition of the Marbletownians. They are grown to the
stature of Grenadiers. Let them be commanded as such by Charles W.
Brodhead. Amen.” Originally Grenadiers were soldiers who carried and
threw hand grenades ; later, they were companies which had place on the
right of the line and wore a peculiar uniform. Presumably the company
had thereafter place at the right of the regimental line, but had no gren-
ades to throw or special uniforms to wear.

The names of the line officers of the regiment having been given in
connection with the companies to which they were attached, require no
repetition. The list given in “New York in the Revolution” is not com-
plete and is not correct; it omits the early regimental roster, and it in-
cludes certainly five captains who never belonged to the regiment. As the
names of enrolled men usually follow the returns made by captains, it is
reasonable to presume the list of the enrolled men of the regiment is
also more or less mixed. In examinations, it may be repeated, reference
should always be made to the compilations in “Archives of the Revolu-
tion.” Lest the names of some of the men should not be met in other
connections, the list in “New York in the Revolution” is copied as fol-
lows:

ENROLLED MEN.

Achmodey, Jacobus Acker, Johannis

Airs, William Aker, John

Aldridge, Daniel Aldridge, Gilbert

Aldridge, Robert Allen, Isaac

Aller, John Anderson, William

Annist, Corn. ‘ Annist, Peter

A met, John Aston, Jeremiah

Atkins, David

170

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

ENROLLED MEN. — Continued.

Baker, Bartholomew

Barager, William Helmus

Barber, William

Barger, Wouler

Barley, Jonathan

Barlow, Nathan

Barrett, John

Barten, Isaac

Bartholamoo, John

Beaker, Ephraim

Beasmer, Michel

Beatty, John

Beaty, Robert

Beck, Nathaniel

Bell, William

Benjamin, Chester

Benjamin, Darius

Benjamin, Devyno

Benjamin, Uriah

Berrit, John

Berry, Peter

Besemer Jacobus

Bevier, Abraham

Bevier, Abraham jr

Bevier Benjamin

Bevier, Coenradt

Bevier, Cornelius

Bevier, Jacob

Bevier, Matthew

Bevier, Nathaniel

Bevier, Petrus

Bevinns, David

Bishop, John

Bishop, James

Black, John

Black, Robert

Blows, John

Bodeley, John

Bodel, Samuel

Bodley, John

Bogardus, Petrus

Bogart, Cornelius

Braden, Thomas

Bradley, Daniel

Bay, William

Brian, James

Bride, James

Brink, John

Brink, Robert

Brodhead, Daniel

Brodhead, Henry

Brodhead, Samual

Brodhead, William

Brooks, Joseph

Brown, George

Brown, John

Brown, Joseph

Brown, Josiah

Brown Peter

Buch Jacobus jr

Bunsehoten Jacob

Buoy William

Burge Thomas

Burger Nicholas

Burger Petrus

Burges Thomas

Burhans Abraham

Burnet Isaac

Burpans Edward

Bush Jacobus

Buswell Zachariah

Buyker Ziles

Cambell Robert

Camble I. Reuben

Gamble Rubin

Gamble Simeon

Campbell John

Campbell Joshua

Can, Abraham

Cantine John

Cantine John jr

Cantine William

Carflow Henry

earner Andrew

Carson Johanis

Carson Samuel

Cater Wilhalmes

Cavere Miles

Celder Hendrick

Chambers Cornelius

Chambers Jacob

Ghamoers John

Chambers Joseph

Chambers Thomas

Chenix William

Clark John

Clarwater Thomas

Glaurwater Joseph

Clee Hugh

Cley Hugh

Clouse Henry

Clyn Jacob

Clyn Johannis

' Coddington Jacob

Cole John

i Cole Simon

Colman Israel

Colter John

THE THIRD OR WESTERN REGIMENT.

ENROLLED MEN. — Continued.

Comfort Richard

Coningham William

Conklin Seven

Connely Patrick

Conner Jacobus

Conner John

Connor Daniel

Conaway John

Constable John

Content Moses

Conway Cornelius

Cook John

Cope William

Cortraght Henry

Cortreght Jacobus

Cottenton Jonah

Cottenton Josiah

Coudegal Abraham

Cowen Thomas

Cox John

Crane James

Crans Peter

Crawford Robert

Crispell Abraham

Crist David

Crist Martines

Crom John

Croover Aaron

Croover George

Cross Noah

Crum Hendrick jr

Crum William jr

Cruppell Benjamin

Currenton Richard

Daily Robert

Dan John

Danaldson Abraham

Davis Andrew

Davis Benjamin

Davis Frederick

Davis Isaac

Davis Jacobus

Davis John

Davis Peter

Davis Richard

Davis William

Deake Josiah

Dealy David

Dean Gidon

Dean Isaac

Dean Jedediah

Decker Benjamin

Decker Frederick

Decker Jacobus

Decker Noah

Decker Ruben

Degair Elias

1 Delametter David

De Lametter John

De Lemetter Benjamin jr

Denniston James

Deny Nicolas

Deo Hendrick

Deo John

De Pew Jachim

De Pew Jacob

De Pew Moses I.

Depue Benjamin

Depue John jr

Depuy Cornelius

Depuy Cornelius jr

Depuy Ephraim

Depuy Ephraim jr

Depuy Joachim

Depuy Joseph

Depuy Moses

Depuy Simon

Devenpart Gerritt jr

Devenport Jacobus

Devoe Abraham

Dewitt Andries A.

Dewitt Cornelious

DeWitt Egbert jr

Dewitt Jacob J.

De Witt Jacob T. i

De Witt Jacobus

DeWitt John

Dewitt John I.

Dewitt Jone

Dewitt Peterus

DeWitt Stephen

Dewitt Tjerck

Dewitt William

Deyeo Henry

Deyeo John

Deyes Abraham jr.

Deyes Ezekial

Deyo Danial

Deyo Isaac

Deyo John

Deyo Simon

Deyow Ezikeal

Deyoy Abraham B.

Dick Thomas

Dickason Joseph

Dickerson Benjamin

Dickson Andrew

Diel Thomas

172

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

ENROLLED Continued.

Dimon Moses
Dodge Samuel
Dolson Theunis
Dongarmo Elias
Douglass John
Doyoo Levi
Drake William
Drew Josiah
Dubois Andrew
Dubois Conradth
Dubois Daniel jr
Dubois Henry
Dubois Jacob
Dubois John
Du Bois Nathaniel
Duboys Jacob
Dugin Christopher
Dumond John D.
Dumond Peter
Dunbar Charles
Dunn Jeremiah
Dunn Thomas jr
Dupuy Brisk

Ecker Solomon
Elder Joseph
Elmendorph Abraham
Elmendorph Coenradt C.
Elmendorph Garret C,
Elmendorph Petrus.
Elsworth Benjamin
Elsworth John
Elsworth William
Elting Abr’m
Ennerly Petrus
Ennest Hartman
Ennest William

Peer Stephenes
Filips Ebeneezer
Frair Isaac
Fraklen Bejenen
Frame Johannis
Frare Jacob jr
Freer Jacob S.

Freer Paulis
Friar Joseph
Friar Solomon jr

Geggy John
Giddes Hugh
Gilaspy George
Gildersleeves Daniel
Givens James
Graham Daniel

Diver Daniel
Dolson John
Donadson Abraham jr
Donoven Daniel
Doyoo Daniel
Drake Josiah
Drew Joshua
Drew Oliver
Du Bois Aseph
Dubois Danial
Dubois Hendricus
Dubois Isaac
Dubois Jacobus
Dubois Matthewsen
Dubois Wessel
Duffield John
Dumond Johannis jr
Dumond John P.
Dumont Cornelius
Dunlap William
Dunn John
Dunn William

Een Abraham
Ellen Jesse

Elmendorph Benjamin
Elmendorph Coenradt W.
Elmendorph Jonathan jr
Elsworth Henry
Elsworth Joseph
Elsworth William W.
Enderle Peter
Ennest Cornelious
Ennest Peter
Every Henry

Fiffer William
Fitch Samuel
Frair Thomas
Frame Jacob
Franklair Benjamin
Freer Jacob J.

Freer John I.

Freer Peter
Friar Powles
Fulton William

Gellaspy Matthew
Gilaspy David
Gilbert Ebeneezer
Ginggy John
Goodspead Nathaniel
Graham Jacobus

Albert Mauterstock.

THE THIRD OR WESTERN REGIMENT.

173

ENROLLED MEN. — Continued.

Graham John
Graham Robert
Grahams James
Grahams Thomas
Greatreaks Silvanus
Green Jacob Marius
Green Sylvester Marius
Griff en Benjamin
Griffin Joseph
Guiggy George

Haasbrouck Jonas
Haip Hom’y jr
Hamilton William
Handricks Johannis
Haner Robert
Hannes Henry
Happy George
Hardenbergh Jacob jr
Hardenbergh John
Harp Henry
Harp Peter
Harris George
Harris James
Hasbrook Solomon
Hasbrouck John jr
Hass Nicholas
Headley Moses
Hedger Samuel
Hellister William
Helm Simon
Hendricks Lawrence
Hendrickson Jacobus
Hennis James
Hermanse Jacob
Hess Nicholas
Hewit Benjamin
Himes Fradrick
Hoghteeling William
Hoisted Joseph
Homan John
Hooghteling John
Hoornbeeck Cornelious
Hoornbeek Benjamin jr
Hoornbeek Jacob, jr.
Hoornbeek Joel
Hoornbeek Lowerens
Hoornbeek Samuel
Hoornbeek Henry
Hornbeek Samuel
Hull Nathaniel
Humphrey James

Impson Benjamin
Irwin Jerred
Ivery Henry

Graham Phasso.

Graham Silvanus
Grahams Jacobus
Gray Abraham
Green Henry
Green Peter Maurius
Greenwalt Daniel
Griffin John
Griffin Matthew
Gunsallus Benjamin

Hadley Moses
Halsted Josiah
Hance Henry
Handricks Lawrence
Hanie Henry
Hausbrouck John
Hardenbergh Elias
Hardenbergh Johannis
Hardenbergh John C.
Harp John
Harret Thomas
Harris Henry
Hasbrock Jonas
Hasbrouck Benjamin
Hasbrouck Severyn
Hatman Danial
Pledger Evert
Heermause Edward
Helm Daniel
Helms Daniel
Hendrickse Peter
Hendrickson Petrus
Hermanse Abraham
Herrington Alexander
Hess Robert
Heyer Hartman
Hoghteeling Thomas
Hollister William
Hoisted Josiah
Hood William
Hoornbeek Gideon
Hoornbeeck Petrus
Hoornbeek Isaac
Hoornbeek Jacob D.
Hoornbeek Johannes
Hoornbeek Philip
Hoornbeek Warner
Hornbeek Cornelius jr
Huey James
Hull Samuel
Hutchin George

Ireland Thomas
Irwin John
Ivory Helmus

174

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

ENROLLED MEN. — Continued.

Jansen Tunis
Johnson Abraham
Johnson Isaac
Johnson Jonathan
Johnston Elexandrie
Jones Ebinezar

Karner Andrew
Keator Cornelius
Keator John P.

Keator Samuel
Keatter William N.
Keifer Laurence
Kelder Joseph
Kelley John
Kerk Gerrit N.

Keter Jacob F.

Keter Samuel.

Kilsey Thomas
Kirkpatrick Samuel
Knox Thomas
Kortreght Louwerens jr
Krinn Benjamin G.
Krom Jacob
Krom John
Krom William
Kroom William
Krum John G.

Lafaver Johannis
Lafaver Philip
Lamb Samuel
Lapowl Johan’s
Laroy Simion
Lefavour Andries
Lefever Jonathan
Lefevor Matthew
Lemunyan John jr
Leroy Francis
Leroy Simon
Lockwood Isaiah
Lofovor Matthew
Low Abraham C.

Low Jehue
Low John
Low Samuel

McBride Francis
McClougen James
McCollum Samuel
McCord John
McCreary Robert
McDonnel William
McDougle Hugh
McElvannon Barney
McGinnes William

Jarman James
Johnson David
Johnson John
Johnson Peter
Johnston William

Kater Jacob jr
Keator Cornelius jr
Keator Petrus I.
Keator William jr
Keel Samuel
Kelder Hendrickes
Keley John
Kelsey John
Keter Jacob
Keter Petrus
Kiersted Wilhelmus
King Jeremiah
Kittle Henry
Kole Petrus
Kortrecht Lowranse
Krinn Hendrick B.
Krom Jacob D.

Krom Reuben
Kroom Jacob
Kroum Johannis jr
Krum Simon

Lafaver John A.
Lalmatier Abraham
Lane Benjamin
Laroy Francis
Laroy Trop.

Lefavour Noah
Lefever Solomon
Lefevre John
Lent Eenus
Leroy Rop.

Litts John
Lofovor John
Louw John C.

Low Cornelius
Low Johanius
Low John J.

Lyons Thomas

McCay Alexander
McClughen Robert
McConnel John
McCreary John
McCue James
McDougall Alexander
McDowl Daniel
McEwen Duncan
McGlaughlin John

THE THIRD OR WESTERN REGIMENT.

ENROLLED Continued.

McHenry John
McKee Thomas
Macky John
McMullen William
McMunn John
McNeal John
Makaive Matthew
Markell Benjamin
Marshall Jeremiah
Marth Peet
Master Cornelius B.
Masten Johannes B.
Masten Joseph
Matt Ezekiel
Megrorty Patrick
Meloy William
Merkell Benjamin
Mickle Frederick jr
Middagh Claudea
Middagh Job’s
Mildun Daniel
Miller Philip
Milliken John
Millspaugh John
Milspaugh Mathias
Mourief Charles
Morris Arthur
Mouris Petrus
Muir William
Murdough Lecky
Myer Peter L.

Myer William jr

Neass Jerry
Neely Abraham
Newkerk Aron
Newkerk Isaac
Nicholson Charles
Nuble Justis

O’Brien John
O’Farrel Michal
Oosterhoudt Henriccus P.
Oosterhoudt Samuel
Oo^erhout Benjamin
Oosterhout Cornelius jr
Oosterhout Hendrickes
Osterhout Henry

Palmater Michal
Palmiteer Henrey
Patterson Samuel
Pattison William
Perkins Ebenezer
Perkins Jordan

Mack Johannis
Mckinsey John
McMaster James
McMunn James
McNay James
McSweeny Daniel
Marcle Samuel
Marshall Henry
Marshall John
Masten Abraham jr
Masten Cornelius C.
Masten John C. '
Masten Robert
Mawris Samuel
Meldown Daneal
Merkel Elias
Merkle Frederick
Middagh Abraham
Middagh George
Middagh Martin jr
Miller Johannes
Miller William
Mills David
Milspaugh Abraham
Milton John
More Nathan
Mowris Daniel
Mours Samuel jr
Mulks Benony
Myer James
Myer Samuel
Myers Michael

Neef Jurry

Newkerck Matthew jr
Newkerk Henry
Newton George
Nottingham Thomas

Odle Jonathan
Oin Abraham
Oosterhoudt Martines
Oosterhoudt Teunis
Oosterhout Cornelius
Oosterhout Ezekiel
Oosterhout Hendrick
Ostrander William

Palmeter Abraham
Patterson Michel
Patterson William
Pemuel Michal
Perkins Goddam
Perry David

176

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

ENROIylvED

Perslow Henry
Petibone Daniel
Palaniteer Peter
Pressler John
Preston John

Quick Hendricous

Rabye Dene
Ramson Jacobus
Redigher Hendrick
Reider Johannes
Remsen Herre
Richards Nathaniel
Roads Cornelius
Roberts Gilbert
Robinson Josiah
Roesa Jacob
Rogers Samuel
Roose Abraham
Rosecrane Jacobus
Rossa Teunis
Ruger John
Ryder Benjamin

St John Noah
Samenons Johains
Sammous John
Sanmaker Frederick
Sasson Thomas
Sax John
Sayre Joshua
Schepmoes John
Schoonmaker Benjamin
Schoonmaker Daniel
Schoonmaker Jacob
Schoonmaker Jochem D.

Schoonmaker John E.

Schoonmaker Martin
Schoonmaker Petrus
Schoonmaker Wilhelmus
Sears Nathan
Semple Robert
Sergeant Robert
Shear Abraham
Shorter John
Simon O. O.

Sleght Henry B
Sloat David
Sluyter Abraham
Sluyter Jacob
Sluyterjohn
Slyter I. Benjamin
Smedis Jacob
Smith Henry

MEN — Continued,

Peterson Alexander
Pettigo Daniel
Pontimer Henry
Pressler Jonathan
Pride James

Quick Jacobus

Radman Michal
Rank John
Reed John
Reighter John
Richard Daniel
Rider Benjamin
Roberts Daniel
Roberts John
Roe David
Rogers James
Roosa Egbert
Rosacran Hendricus
Rosecrans John
Row David
Russel Alexander
Rylya Denie

Samanins Joseph
Sammon Johannis
Sanders John
Sarjent Wite
Satchwell William
Sax Peter
Scapmus Derick
Schepmaes William
Schoonmaker Cornelius
Schoonmaker Isaac
Schoonmaker Jacob Dewitt
Schoonmaker Johanis
Schoonmaker Lodewyck
Schoonmaker Martinus
Schoonmaker Thomas
Scofield James
Seile Coeuraet
Senough Jacob
Shaw Thomas
Shorter Chrispares
Shucraft Jacob
Simons Joseph
Sleght Teunis
Slowter Walter
Slyter Cornelius
Sluyter James
Sluyter William
Smedis Benjamin B.

Smith Abraham
Smith Jacob

THE THIRD OR WESTERN REGIMENT.

177

ENROLLED Continued.

Smith James
Smith John
Smith Peter jr
Smith Valentine
Snyder Christopher
Stanton Benjamin
Stilway Cornelius
Stumble Abraham
Swart Isaac
Swartout James R

Tarwillen Simon
Terwiliger Tunis
Terwilleger Joseph
Terwilliger Joshua
Theator Gideon
Thomas John
Thompson Archibald
Thounsend Ben
Thuttle Barzile
Tolten James
Tomkins Jeremiah
Tompson Joshua
Tornuer Jacob
Travis Gabril
Turner Jacobus jr
Tutle Israel.

Van Beuren Philip
Vanburen Christopher
Vandamarck Orry
Vandemark Cornelius
Vandemerke John
Vandemerke Lodewyck
Vandemerken John
Van Demerker Frederick
Vandermarke Arie
Van Dermarke Jacob
Van der merk Ghysbert
Vandermerkon Frederick,
Van Gasbeck Thomas
Vanheran Christopher
Van Keuren Abraham
Van Keuren Matthew
Vanlauvan Petrus
Van Luvan Christopher
Van Steenbergh Abraham
Van Steenbergh John
Van Stienbergh Dirck
Vanvlack Cornelius
Van Vlerkum James
Van Wagenen Dainel
Van Wagenen Jacob
Van Wagenen Peter
Varner Philip
Ver Rooy Nathen

Smith Johannis
Smith Jonas jr
Smith Thomas
Smith William
Sparks Jacob
Stephenson John
Stinson William
Swart Cornelius
Swart Tobias

Terwiligar Arry
lerwilleger Hans jr
Terwilliger Evert
Thaxter Benj F
Thlarwater Joseph
Thompson Aaron
Thompson William
Thrum John
Tirwilleger Johannis
Tomkins Isaac
Tomkins Jonathan
Tompkins Thomas
Toursen Samuel sr
Trowbridge Ralph
Turner William

Van Blascom James
Van Curen Ruben
Vandamark Ezekiel
Vandemark Solomon
Vandemerke Joseph
\ andemerken George
Van De Merken Joseph
Vanderhoff Cornelius
Vandermarke Fradrick
Vandermarke Joseph
Van dermerk Solomon
Van Gaasbeek Abraham
Vanheng Abram
Van Ining Abraham
Van Keuren Mattheus
Van Keuren Tcherick
Vanlauven John
Vanluven Andria
Vansteenbergh Benjamin
Van Steenbergh Matthew
Van Stienbergh Tobias
Vanvliet Teunis
Van Wagenen Benjamin
Van Wagenen John
Vanwagenen Levi
Van Wagenen Simon
Vernooy Johannis
Viely John

178

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

ENROLLED MEN. — Continued.

Wackman Daniel
Walker Justus
Wallas William jr
Waters Nathaniel
Weekman Daniel
Weeler William
Wells Jacobus
Wells Peter
Wherry David
White Silas
Whitney David jr
Wilder Daniel
Williams John
Wilmiller Henry
Winfield Simon
Winne Peter I.
Witney David
Wolsey Henry
Wood Theophelus
Woolsey Daniel jr
\vynkoop Cornalius
Wynkoop Tobies

Yaple Adam
Yelverton Anthony
York Johannis
York Petrus
Yoimg John

Waismiller Henry
Wallace John
Wasbrouck Jonathan
Waugh Robert
Weeks Abraham
Weller Frederick
Wells James
Wesmiller Jeremiah
Whitaker John
Whitney David
Whitney Jacob
Williams Abraham
Willson Thomas
Winfield David
Winn John
Wismiller Jeremiah
Wolsey Daniel
Wood Job
Woods Silas
Wright William
Wynkoop Dirck D
Wynkoop William

Yates Thomas
Yelverton Anthony jr
York John
Young Alexander

Peter C. Black.

THE FOURTH OR MIDDLE REGIMENT.

179

CHAPTER XII.

THE FOURTH OR MIDDLE REGIMENT.

The Fourth or Middle Regiment covering parts of the present
counties of Ulster and Orange, but then entirely in the country
of Ulster, was formally organized October 25th, 1775, by com-
missions issued to the following Field and Staff:

Colonel, Jonathan Hasbrouck.

Lieut. Col., Johannis Hardenbergh, Jr.

Major (ist), Johannis Jansen, Jr.

Major (2d), Lewis Du Bois.

Adjutant, Abraham Schoonmaker.

Qr. Master, Isaac Belknap.

Through a clerical error Belknap was not commissioned, and Lewis
Du Bois was then enlisting a company for Colonel James Clinton’s “Third
New York Continental Regiment” for the campaign of 1775, against
Canada. Their places were supplied, but by whom is not on record. In
consequence of failing health (he died in 1780) Colonel Hasbrouck re-
signed in 1778, and on February 27th, 1779, the Field and Staff was re-
organized :

Johannis Hardenbergh, Jr., Colonel.

Johannis Jansen, Jr., Lieut. Colonel.

Samuel Clark, Major (ist).

Jonathan Hardenbergh, Qr. Master.

Adjutant, Abraham Schoonmaker.

Later — John Gillaspy was promoted Major, and Henry Van Wyan
(?) succeeded Jonathan Hardenbergh as Qr. Master. The roster of the
Field and Staff as given in “New York in the Revolution” is not
correct. Jonathan Elmendorf was never Lieutenant Colonel of the regi-
ment, and some of the other names are very doubtfully placed. The
names given above are correct. It is not clear that Colonel Hardenbergh
resigned, and was succeeded by Lieut. Colonel Jansen; it is only clear
that the regiment is on the rolls as “Hasbrouck’s,” “Hardenbergh’s” and
“Jansen’s,” the latter frequently printed “Johnson’s,” through the ignor-
ance, probably, of the compiler, but not the less annoying to investigators.

i8o

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

To add to the annoyance the list of the line officers given in the volume
leferred to contains no less than thirty-six who were never on the rolls
of the regiment.

The companies composing the regiment, and necessarily the line offi-
cers of the regiment, as given in “Calendar of Historical Manuscripts”
and in “Archives of the Revolution,” were, as far as of record :

1st Co. Newburgh, North District — Auther Smith, Captain; Isaac Fowler, First
Lieut.; John Foster, Second Lieut.; Daniel Clark, Ensign. And the company re-
mained so officered in 1779. In 1778 Reuben Tucker, Ensign, vice Daniel Clark,
deceased.

2nd Co. Newburgh Southeast District — Samuel Clark, Captain; Benj. Smith,
First Lieut; James Denton, Sen., Second Lieut; Martin Wygant, Ensign. Benj.
Smith was succeeded by James Denton, Sen., as First Lieut. ; Martin Wygant, suc-
ceeded Denton as Second Lieut ; and Monson Ward succeeeded Wygant as Ensign.
On the promotion of Captain Clark to Major, James Denton succeeded to the Cap-
taincy; William Palmer became First Lieut; Isaac Hasbrouck, Junr., Second Lieut.,
and Ebenezer Gidney, Ensign.

3d Co. Newburgh Western District — Jacob Conkling, Captain; Jacob Lawrence,
First Lieut; David Guion, Second Lieut.; Roger Barton, Ensign. The latter went
over to the enemy, and was succeeded by John Crowell, Ensign. William Irwin,
Junr., succeeded the latter in 1783.

4th Co. Southeast Marlborough — Lewis Du Bois, Captain; Caleb Merritt, First
Lieut; Dr. Abijah Perkins, Second Lieut.; Matthew Wygant, Ensign. Du Bois
entered Continental service, and was succeeded as Captain by Caleb Merritt; Abijah
Perkins, First Lieut; Stephen Case, Second Lieut.; Matthew Wygant, Ensign. In
1780 the roll stood: Stephen Case, Captain; Matthew Wygant, First Lieut; John
Banta, Second Lieut.; Nathl. Du Bois, Ensign, vice Alex. Cropsey, displaced.

5th Co. Northeast Marlborough — Jacob Wood, Captain; Juryan Mackey, First
Lieut ; Nathaniel Goodspeed, Second Lieut. ; John Knowlton, Ensign. Annan
Smith, First Lieut., vice Macked, resigned; Nathl. Kilsey, Second Lieut; Nathl.
Harker, Ensign, vice Knowlton, removed.

6th Co. Northwest Marlborough — Bordawine Tearpenning, Captain; William
Martin, First Lieut; Uriah Drake, Second Lieut; James Lyons, Ensign. In 1779,
David Ostrander, Captain; James Lyons, First Lieut; Jacob Terwilliger, Second
Lieut; Hugo Sheet, (?) Ensign.

7th Co. Northwest side of Shawangunk River — Thomas Jansen, Jr., Captain;
Matthew Jansen, First Lieut. ; Alvin Snider, Second Lieut. ; Peter Decker, Ensign.
Later — Matthew Jansen, Captain, vice Thomas Jansen, Jr.; Peter Decker, First
Lieut; Nicholas Hardenbergh, Second Lieut, vice Smedes, displaced; Jacob Rose-
krans. Ensign.

8th Co. Between Shawangunk and Paltz Rivers — Matthew Rea, Captain; ’siah
Robinson, First Lieut; Petrus Roosa, Second Lieut; James Hunter, Jr., Ensign.
1778, Oct. 4, ’siah (Isaiah) Robinson, Captain, vice Rea; James Hunter, First Lieut.,
vice Robinson ; James Kain, 2d Lieut ; Eert Hoffman, Ensign. 1783, Dirck Roosa,
Jr., Ensign, vice Hoffman, moved out of beat.

9th Co. Southwest side of Paltz River — Jacobus Roosa, Captain; Cornelius Mas-
ten, First Lieut ; Wilh’s Van Demark, Second Lieut ; Isaac Hardenbergh, Ensign.
Later — Cornelius Masten, Captain; vice Roosa (Rose); Isaac Hardenberg, Second

THE FOURTH OR MIDDLE REGIMENT.

i8i

Lieut; Wilhelmus Ostrander, Ensign. W. Ostrander, Second Lieut Harden-
bergh removed out of beat; Michael Pelleyer, Ensign, vice Ostrander, promoted.

loth Co. Galatians — Shawangunk — John Galaspie, Captain; Jason Wilkins, First
Lieut.; Robert Hunter, Jr., Second Lieut; Sami. Galaspie, Ensign. 1780, Sami.
Galaspie, Second Lieut., vice Hunter left the regiment; Jason Wilkins, Captain, vice
Gillaspie promoted Major; Johannis Robinson, Ensign, vice Sami. Gilaspie pro-
moted.

nth Co. Shawangunk — Wm. Cross, Captain, vice John Graham, displaced; John
Graham, First Lieut., vice Barkley, displaced; Robert Thompson, Second Lieut,
vice Thompson promoted ; Robert Mould, Ensign, vice McCurdy, displaced.*

On the 20th of March, 1776, Colonel Hasbrouck reported that the regi-
ment comprised eleven companies and a total of six hundred and eight
men, officers included; “likewise four hundred and fifty firelocks, two
hundred and ninety-three swords, one hundred and eighty-eight cartridge
boxes, thirty-two pounds of powder, one hundred and twenty-eight
pounds of lead.” The limited supply of arms and powder is noted in all
the regiments. Looking back over the field we see many unarmed men,
strong only in their belief in the justice of the cause in which they had
embarked.

From the disconnected compilation of the regimental returns given in
“New York in the Revolution” is taken, without guaranty of complete-
ness, the following list of

ENROLLED MEN.

Admins, Samuel
Albertson, Stephen
Aldrich, Gilburth
Allen, John
Alsdarf, Philip
Alsdorph, Johannis
Alsdurf, Jacobes
Anthony, Alard
Anthony, John jr

Bach, Job’s Lenz
Baily Thomas
Baker Bartholomew
Bancker Solomon
Banks, Justus
Bark, George
Barkly, James
Barns, Stephen
Barthy, James
Barwill, James
Bedford, Jones

Albertson, Joseph
Albertson, William
Alekenbrgh, Peter
Alsdarf, Lawrence
Alsdorph, Jacobus
Alsdorph, Philip
Anderson, William
Anthony, John
Arslen, Daniel.

Bading Isaac
Bain David
Ball Thomas
Bang Samuel
Bardine William
Barker Isaac
Barman Peter
Barrik George
Bartley James
Bealy John
Beleger Frederick

* There were certainly five companies in Shawangunk. See N. Y. Historical MSS. i,_ 444*
Governor Clinton wrote in 1777 that there was a “Park of artillery” there. The original organ-
ization of the company has not been found of record.

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

182

ENROLLED MEN. — Continued.

Bell Thorne
Bell, William
Bevier Abraham
Bevier Daniel
Bevier Nathaniel
Billiger Michael
Blenstram, Matthew I.
Bloomer, William
Bodine, Isaac
Bodine, William
Boons, Daniel
Borwell, James
Bout, John
Brannen, Addam
Brinck, Sollom
Brink, John
Brink, John jr
Brook Abraham W.
Brown Edward
Brown Jonathan
Brown William
Brusie Andries
Bruyn Cornelius
Bruyn Johannis
Bruyn Zacheriah
Bump Cornelius
Burdin William
Burhans Samuel

Cahill Daniel
Camble John
Carman John
Carpenter Wright
Case Joseph
Cerley Israel
Christice Johan
Clark James
Clarwater Joseph
Cline Jacob
Coldwell John
Cole Johannis
Coleman Duncken
Colter John
Combs Solomon
Comfort John jr
Conkling William
Cool Maritie
Comes Solomon
Coulter John jr
Cox William
Cramer Wendle
Crank Frederick
Crans Ezekiel
Crans Philip
Crawford Jonathan

Bell Thomas
Beroon Anthony
Bevier Cornelius
Bevier Jonas
Beymer Job’s
Binson Peter
Blensham Matthew J.
Bodine Francis
Bodine John
Bonker John
Borton Isaac
Bouen Daniel
Bowings Daniel
Breaden Thomas
Brink Cornelius
Brink Peter
Brink Solomon
Brown Ebeneezer
Brown Isaack
Brown Jonathan jr
Brush Eliakim
Bruyn Abraham
Bruyn Ebenazer
Bruyn Safryn
Bull Daniel
Burdin Francis
Burdine John
Burns Charles

Caldwell James
Camp Eldard
Carny Stephen
Case John
Caviler John
Chisem Hendrick
Claarwater Jeremiah
Clarwater Jacob
Cline Jonas
Cole Cornelius
Cole William D.
Coleman Joseph
Colwell Jacob
Comfort Benjamin
Comfort Samuel
Cool Cornelius
Cool William
Coulter John
Cowen Martin
Crage Francis
Cranses Henry
Crans Cristuph«l
Crans Henry
Crawford David
Crawford Nathan
Crawford Samuel

THE FOURTH OR MIDDLE REGIMENT.

ENROLLED MEN. — Continued.

Crawford Robert

Crestise John

Credit Benjamin

Crofferd Samuel

Criswell John

Cronee Ezekiel

Crousk Fradrick

Crooger Earnest

Crous Ezekiel

Croover John

Crook Conrad

Cropsey Matthew

Cropsey Henry

Cross Leonard

Crosby Thomas

Crover George

Crover Aron

Crowford Nathan

Crover John
Cruger Arnest
Cunbergh Matthew

Crumm Jacob

Dacker Elezar

Dailey Robert

Dalis William

Davis John

Days Handrick

Dealls William

Deane Solomon

Decker Abraham

Decker Abraham jT

Decker Ambrick

Decker Benjamin

Decker Benjamin jr

Decker Benjamin J.

Decker Benjamin T.

Decker Elisha

Decker Elias

Decker Evert

Decker Elizar

Decker Jurry

Decker John G

Decker Noah

Decker Manasse

Decker Peter

Decker Peter jr

Decker Uriah

Decker Wilhelmes

Decker William

Dederick Lucas

De Lefever Coenrad

Demott James

Denniston John

Derlin David

Devenport Robert

Devins Jacobus

Dill David

Dinager George

Divenu Jacobus

Divins Jacobus

Dobins James

Docherty Cornelius

Dolson John

Douglass James

Drake William

Dubois Andries

Dubois Hezekiah

Dubois Jonathan

Dubois Nathaniel

Dubois William

Duboys Aadris

Duffield John

Du Mott Isaac
Du Witt Jacob

Dunlap John

Eaker Steven

Eckert Stephanus

Edmons Samuel

Empson Benjamin

Empson John

English John

Ennis James

Erwen Robert

Farris James

Ferguson Samuel

Forbes William

Forbes William G

Forcits William

Forgeson Samuel

Forsght William

France Youst

Frayer Jeremiah

Freeman Samuel

Freer John
Frons Philip

Frint Jacob

184

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

ENROLLED Continued.

Galation James
Gee Anders
Gee John
Gillaspy David
Gillespy James
Gillespy John
Graham James
Graham Thomas
Grahams James
Gray Benj.

Green William
Gunsalis Samuel
Gutches Hendricus

Hadger John
Hains Henry
Hallett George
Hannah Samuel
Harcourt Nathaniel
Harris Alpheus
Hathy Fredrick
Hauter Isaac
Heady Marcus
Hedger Wilhelmus
Heemanse Edward
Herr David
Hide Henry
Hill William
Holester Isaac
Hollet William
Hollister Isaac
Holmes Asa
Hoole John
Hosbrock Benjamin
Hufmen John
Hughes William
Hull Samuel

Imson Benjamin
Irvine William

Jacklin Daniel
Jansen Nicholas
Johnson Abraham
Johnston Ritchard

Kain, James
Kanter, Isaac
Kunbarrack, Matthew
King, dayman
Kirkpatrick, Samuel
Kline, Jacob
Knifin, John
Knox, Thomas
Kyrk, William

Garrison Isaac
Gee Jeremiah
Gee Nathaniel .
Gillespy George
Gillespy James jr
Goetschus Henrocus
Graham Robert
Graham Wilyham
Gray Andrew
Green John
Griffise Barne
Gunsalus Danel

Hadly Fredick
Halett Moses
Hallett William
Harcourt John
Harding James
Harris Jonathan
Hatley Frederick
Hawkins James
Hedger John
Hedgner John
Hendrickson Jacob
Herrinton Moses
Hill George
Hofman John
Holl John
Hollett Moses
Hollister William
Homes Reubin
Hornbeek Ephriam
Huffman Nicholas
Hughes Evert
Hull Nathaniel
Hunter Archebel

Innis James
Irwin Robert.

Jansen Jacobus
Johnsen Richard
Johnston Arthur
Jonson John

Kane Cornelius
Keyser Ephraim
Kimbary Mathew
King Nicholas
Kitchen Richard
Kline Jonas
Knolton Daniel
Kraus Henry

Grove Webster.

THE FOURTH OR MIDDLE REGIMENT.

185

ENROLLED MEN. — Continued.

Lair Adam
Lane William
Laughlin James
Lawrence William
Lenderman Cornelius
Lewis Cornelius
Lewis Ritchard
Lilley John
Lister Allon
Lits Evart
Loomis Timothy
Lovell Alexander
Low Jacob
Lutts John

McBorney William
McCleen John
McClughan Robert
McCullom William
McColough John
McCoughan Robert
McCreery Robert
McCurdy John
McDowal Daniel
MacDugal Duncan
Mcllvean David
McKay John
Mackey Alexander
McLackler John
McMullen John
Malford David
Marshall Jeremiah
Masten Abraham
Masten Ezekiel
Masten Matthew
Maston John
Mentz John
Milbourn Andrew
Miller Hans
Miller James
Miller John jr
Mills David
Milspaugh Fredrick
Milspaugh Mathias
Milspough Mattichia
Mirrit Thomas
Moor Jacob
Morse Benjamin
Moule Philip
Mullen Michal
Murdogh Lackey

Nainy Samuel
Nox Thomas.

Lane George
Lattimore Roger
Lawrence John
Laybolt Jacob
Lester Allen
Lewis John
Lewis Samuel
Linn George
Litch Rulif
Lits Rulif
Lotts Conrad
Lovell Jost Minard
Luts Henry
Luwes Corneles

McCay Alexander jr
McClouchan Robert
McColhem Robert
McColm Robert
McCord John
McCreery John
McCue James
McDermont Lawrence
McDowell Jonathan
McElvin David
Mcllwain David
McKenny Matthew
Mackey Alexander jr
McLaughlin John
Macord John
Mance John
Marten John
Masten Art
Masten Jonathan
Masters Daniel
Matterstock Job’s
Merritt George
Miller Abraham
Miller Jacobus
Miller John
Millin Alexander
Millspaugh Abraham
Milspaugh Isaac
Milspaugh Matthew
Minthorn John
Mole Philip
Moor Martin
Moss Benjamin
Mullen Michel
Mumford James

Nicols William

i86

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

ENROLLED MEN. — Continued.

O’Bradly Dainel
Odle Jonathan
Oproght George
Osterhoudt Henry
Ostrander Christophel
Ostrander William
Owns Benjamin

Palmer William
Parsel Jeremiah
Penny James
Penny Stephen
Perveer James
Pifer Hendrick
Pixley William
Plums ted Joseph
Potman John
Purdy William
Putnam John.

Radicker Henry
Rainey David
Raljay Denye
Rank Cornelius
Rea Matthew jT
Read Stephen
Reany David
Rekman Harmanes
Relyea Dene T.

Richard Nathaniel
Ricknen Harmanus
Ronk John
Roos Avart
Roos Peter A
Roosa Aldert
Roose Evert
Rose Evert jr
kosekrans Hendrick
Rosekrans John
Rosekrans William
Ross Finley
Rossell Ludwigh
Rump Henry

Sageman Jacob
St John Adam
St John Samuel
Sammons Jacob
Sammons Matthew jr
Scarscadden Robert
Schoonmaker Isaac
Schoonmaker Wilhelmus
Schutt Abraham
Scott James
Sears Lawrence

O’Cain Edward
Opright Malaicah
Osborn Daniel
Osterhoudt Peter
Ostrander Jacob
Owen John

Palmiteer William
Pembrook William
Penny John
Pensil Peter
Phelps Shadrick
Pixley Jona
Place William
Post Abram, jr
Potter Edward
Putnam Henry

Rain James jr
Rainey Samuel
Raljay Simon
Rank Philip
Rea Stephen
Realya Simon
Reighter John
Relyea Dene
Relyea John
Richman Harramanis
Roe John
Roof John
Roos Evert jr
Roos John
Roosa Derrick
Rose John
Rosekrans Hendrick W.
Rosekrans Wilhelmes
Rosman Hendrick
Ross William
Rump Christian
Russell William

Sager Malachy
St John Noah
Sammons Cornelius
Sammons Matthew
Sammons Tunis
Schoonmaker Abraham
Schoonmaker Jacob
Schriver Martin
Schutt H
Scott William ^

Segor Malacchia

THE FOURTH OR MIDDLE REGIMENT.

187

ENROLLED Continued.

Seneebanch Henery
Seoos John
Shammons Jacob
Shaw Thomas
Shoecraft Jacob
Sidman Jacob
Silkworth William
Simmons Sylvanus
Sincebaugh Henry
Sinkler John
Skit Hugh
Slauter John
Slot William
Smedes Benjamin B.
Smith George
Smith Ladlaw
Smith Ludlow
Snider Daniel jr
Snyder Henry
Snyder John
Sparks Abraham
Sparks Robert
Springsteel Joseph
Starks Robert
Stevenson Hugh
Stitt John
Stowell John
Strickland Jacob
Summons Tunis
Swart Benjamin
Swart Isaac
Swingel Harromus

Taerpanning, Lavi
Tarepening, Richard
Tarepenning, Lawrence
Tarpenney, Elias
Taylsor, John
Teero Lowrence
Terpening Abraham
Terwelgen, Petrus Vas
Terwiliger, Hezekiah
Terwillager, Joseph
Terwilleger. Daniel
Terwilleger, James F. jr
Terwilleger, Matthew
Terwilleger, Wilhelmus
Terwilligar, Jacobus
Terwilligar, Peter N.
Terwilliger Abraham jr
Terwilliger, Arra
Terwilliger, Cornelius jr
Terwilliger, Hendrick
Terwilliger, Isaac
Terwilliger, James

Sension Adam
Shafer George
Shaver Daniel
Shear Salvinus
Shorter John
Sifertis Manasa
Simmons Jacob
Simmons Tunis
Sinclair John
Sinsepough Henry
Slaughter Isaac
Sloot William
Smedes Benjamin
Smith Francis
Smith John Meribray
Smith Leege
Smith William
Snyder Daniel
Snyder Jacob
Sommons Matthew
Sparks jacob,

Sprage Amasa
Stalker Seth
Steenbargh John
Stitt James
Storm Jacob
Strickland Abraham
Striker Abraham
Swart Abraham
Swart Daniel
Swart John
Swingle Cronimus

Tampson Archibald
Tarepining Samuel
Tarpening Derrick
Tarpenny Abraham
Teerpenning Teunis
Terbos Henry
Terpening John
Terwilagar Philip
Terwiliger John
Terwilleger Arie V.
Terwilleger Isaac jr
Terwilleger Jonathan
l erwilleger Simon H.
Terwilleg Zacharias
Terwilligar Josiah
Terwilliger Abraham
Terwilliger Aroon
Terwilliger Benjamin
Terwilliger Evert
Terwilleger Isaac
Terwilliger Jacob
Terwilliger James F.

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

1 88

ENROLLED MEN. — Continued.

Terwilliger, Jonas
Terwilliger, Petrus
Terwilliger, Simon
Terwilliger Tunis
'terwilliger William
Thompson Andrew
Thompson Richard
Tirwillegar Henry
Traith John
'i rapp James
'fucker Ruben

Upright George
Upright Nathan

Vanamburgh Hanry
Vancuran Benjamin
Van Delyne Peter
Vandemarken Ezekiel
Vandenmark Jacob
Vandermerke Wilhelmis
Vangorden James

VanKeuren

VanKeuren Charick
VanKeuren Hazael
VanKeuren Jacobus jr
Van Keuren Ruben
Van Steenbergh John
Van Wagenen Benjamin I.
Vawn Richard

Vvackman Henry
Waderwan William.
Wakman Henry
Walles William jr.

Wallis William
Ward Richard
Warkman Henry
Washburn John
Watts Nicholas
W elsh Ephriam
Weller John
Whany John
Whorrey John
Wigens Michal
Wiggons Annon
Williams John
Williams William
Winfield Elias
Wintfield Peter
Wood Abraham
Wood Stephen
Woodward Daniel
Wygant Martin

Yorks Aron
Young Johan Christ.

Terwilliger Peter P.
Terwilliger Petrus Vas.
Terwilliger Solomon
Terwilliger Tunis C.
Thompson Alexander
Thompson Archabald
Tice Henry
Tooker Keuben
Trape James
Trumpurt Jacob
Tuttle Israel.

Upright Malichia

Vanamburgh Jeremiah
Vancuren Levi
Vandemark Ezekial
Vandemarken Jacob
Vandenmerk Jacob
Vangarden Jacobus
Vangorden James
VanKeuren Benjamin
VanKeuren Cornelius
VanKeuren Jacobus
VanKeuren Levi
Vankuren Benjamin
Van Steenburgh Abraham
Van Wegan Henry
Viburgs Peter

Wackman Marcus
Wagenor Johannis
Waller John
Wallis Hugh
War ! David
Ward William
Warrey John
Wath Nicholas
Weed Samuell
Weller Frederick
Westbrook Abraham
Wharing James
Wigant John
Wiggan Michael
Williams Adam
Williams Richard
Wilsey William
Winfield Peter
Wintworth John
Wood Job
Wood Timaty
Workman Henry

Young Christian

SERVICES OF THE MILITIA.

189

CHAPTER XIII.

SERVICES OF THE MILITIA.

IN the preceding compilation from official records has been given
the territorial locations of the militia regiments of the Revolution,
the town or precinct locations of the several companies, the Field
Staff and Line officers, and the names of the enrolled men, a compilation
which has never been printed in any publication, local or state. Com-
paring the names of the rank and file with the names by towns of the
signers of the “Articles of Association” will show in most cases, the
residences of the militiamen, aid materially in identifying them, and
take the history of the events in which they were actors into the very
neighborhoods where they resided, and where for many years later their
long muskets and powder horns hung on hooks over their mantel pieces.

It is proper to remark in passing, that the militia were not “enlisted
men,” as classed in “New York in the Revolution,” but the body of male
residents constituted by nature and by law as competent and available
for military service, enrolled in distinct districts under regularly ap-
pointed officers, liable to be called into service at any time to suppress
insurrections and repel invasions and at all times liable to draft to re-
enforce regularly constituted armies and for special duty. It is in the field
of detachments and levies for special service in special organizations,
and in enlistments in the regular or continental army of the Revolution
that the militia of Ulster will be most frequently met in these notes.

There was another class of the militia, as there is now, called “ex-
empts,” that is men who were exempt from field service by reason of
age or infirmities, previous service, professional occupation, etc., but
who, nevertheless, during the Revolution, were regularly enrolled, made
liable to service, in emergencies, and subject to a special tax for the pur-
chase of arms and to supply men in the active force. It is to be regretted
that in the returns which have been preserved the exempts are only
limitedly represented. To the honors of service in the Revolution they
are as fully entitled as were the men who were on the active roll. Returns

190

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

of men enrolled as Exempts in three companies in Colonel Hasbrouck’s
Regiment are available. In “Archives of the Revolution” may be found
lists of officers of companies of exempts in New Windsor, Kingston,
Marbletown, Marlborough, Rochester, Wallkill, Hanover and Sha-
wangunk. It is presumed that the law was complied with in all the com-
pany districts. The companies were continued during the war.

The changing by the British Ministry of the seat of war from Boston
to New York in 1776, the constitution of the Hudson as the strategic
centre, the sending of Burgoyne and a strong army of Quebec in 1777
to cut his way through to the Hudson and hold possession in conjunction
with the British forces in New York City and by separating the eastern
colonies from the western and southern make the suppression of the re-
bellion less difficult, and the securing through the Johnsons of an alliance
with four of the six nations of Indians under Brant, gave to the counties
of Ulster and Orange two especially exposed frontiers, the southern and
the western, and contingent exposures on the north. In no part of the
nation was so heavy a burden placed on the militia as on Ulster, especially
in the early years of the war. So it comes that we read of detachments
of the Ulster militia under General Morin Scott, in the battle of Long
Island in August, 1776; of detachments of Ulster militia under General
George Clinton at Harlem in the lower Westchester in the same year;
detachments sent out to guard the passes in the Highlands ; detachments
on guard on the northern and western frontiers, and detachments to
aid Generals Schulyer and Gates in resisting the advance of Burgoyne.
In addition to those fields of service the Provincial Convention, early in
1776, resolved to establish forts in the Highlands and obstruct the navi-
gation of the river by a chain, chevaux-de-frise, fire rafts and a navy.

The works were constructed mainly by the militia of Ulster, Orange
and Duchess, and by the same bodies in varying detachments they were
mainly garrisoned. The entire militia contiguous to the forts were
required to hasten to them on signal given by flags and the discharge of
cannon by day, and by beacon fires on the hills at night; no matter what
the exposure the militia must go.

The first of the special organizations of the militia were those known
as Minute Men, whe were required to meet and drill and hold them-
selves in constant readiness for the field. They came in under the militia
law of 1775, which provided that after the regular companies had been

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SERVICES OF THE MILITIA.

191

organized, “every fourth man of each company” should “be selected”
for that particular service who, when in service, should be subject to the
orders of officers of the continental army. The plan, while reading very
well on paper, did not prove satisfactory in operation, and it was abol-
ished in June, 1776. Meanwhile its provisions had been generally com-
plied with. A regiment of Minute Men was organized in Southern
Ulster; Thomas Palmer, Colonel; Thomas Jansen, Jr., Lieut. Colonel;
Arthur Parks, ist Major; Sami. Logan, 2d Major; Severyn Bruyn,
Adjutant; Isaac Belknap, Qr. Master. In northern Ulster was also
formed a regiment of which Charles De Witt was Colonel; Andries De
Witt, Lieut. Colonel; Christopher Tappen, ist Major; Corn’s E. Wyn-
koop, 2d Major; Oake Suydam, Adjutant; Corn’s Elmendorf, Qr.
Master. The officers of the companies in the regiments are of limited
record, but there are no lists of men aside from those enrolled in the
regular companies. Except that Colonel Palmer’s Regiment was on duty
in the Highlands in the winter of 1775, and in McClaughrey’s Second
Ulster, there is no record of field service, although there was service
obviously.

Kindred special organizations came in under a law of the Provincial
Convention, July 22, 1776, authorizing the formation of companies of
Rangers “for the protection of the inhabitants of the northern and west-
ern frontier of the province.” These companies were to hold themselves
in constant readiness for service, with a view especially to prevent the
incursions and depredations of Indians and Tories, the latter a despicable
element in the contest, of less honor than their Indian alliants. Making
their abode in the mountains on the north and west where they were in
touch with their dusky allies, they became spies, informers and pilots and
shared in the spoils of bandit warfare. Their forays upon the scattered
dwellings on the frontiers were frequent. Some of the members of the
bands were caught and hung, and more of them richly deserved the same
fate. The Rangers were to be confined to the territory of the county in
which the companies were recruited, unless by the unanimous consent
of the committees of Safety and Observation of adjoining counties, or
unless otherwise directed by the Provincial Convention by its Committee
of Safety. Three companies were raised in Ulster commanded respect-
ively by Captains Isaac Belknap of New Windsor, Jacob R. De Witt of
Paenpacht, and Elias Hasbrouck. The latter two were in service on the

192

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

frontiers, but Belknap was directed to report with his command to the
Provincial Convention, which had then retreated from White Plains,
Westchester County, to Fishkill Village above the Highlands. As Bel-
knap’s was the only company that was under the orders of the Conven-
tion, and was actually at Fishkill, Belknap was obviously the Capt. Town-
send of Cooper’s story “The Spy.” The names of the officers and privates
of the company have been preserved; in other companies we have the
names of officers only.

The entire militia force of the county could not have numbered over
two thousand men. The largest number from any one regiment on duty
at any time was 500 men from Colonel Hasbrouck’s Fourth, July, 1777,
and 460 in October at the burning of Esopus. It seems to have been the
strongest of the four regiments. Governor Clinton had no little con-
fidence in it, and particularly in that portion of it known as the “Shaw-
angunk Militia.” As a rule circumstances would not admit of the calling
out of any full company from its “beat” ; some portion must necessarily
remain at home. Portions of regiments were in almost constant motion,
some going out and others returning. The only illustrative report of their
movements is of record from Colonel Hasbrouck’s regiment for six-
teen months :

Dec.

12, 1776 — At

Ramapo

300 men,

27 days.

Jan.

7, 1776- “

100

Jan.

28, 1777— “

200

Jan.

1777— “

Fort Montgomery

150

Mch.

7, 1777— “

ic a

130

Mch.

1777— “

Peekskill

250

July

1777— “

Fort Montgomery

460

Aug.

1777— “

500

Oct.

1777— “

“ Constitution

200

Oct.

1777— “

Burning of Esopus

460

Nov.

1777— “

New Windsor

120

April

1778—

West Point

420

No doubt similar reports were sent in by the commanders of other
regiments — they were called for at least, and we know that Snyder’s,
Pawling’s and McClaughrey’s regiments were out in detachments, as
has been stated. The entire force was seriously handicapped by the
scarcity of arms and ammunition. Guns and powder “cannot be had for
love or money,” wrote Lieut. Colonel McClaughrey of the Second Regi-
ment; of 293 men exclusive of officers of the First Regiment, July 17,
1777, ten were in want of arms, and 282 in want of ammunition, wrote

SERVICES OF THE MILITIA.

193

Lieut. Colonel Elmendorf, and Captain Jeremiah Snyder, of the First
regiment, who had been sent out with his company to garrison a block
house on the western frontier at Shandaken, wrote, August 15, 1778:
^‘My company consists of forty-one men besides sergeants, and corporals,
and these I cannot supply with three cartridges apiece. From this you
may judge what defence we can make.” And the wonder is that they
made any. The Provincials Convention, to supply the place of guns,
had 3000 spontoons (short spears) made and distributed. They were
good for close action, but were next to nothing against Tories and
Indians armed with guns. There was plenty of patriotism in stock, and
that was about all.

It so happened that on the capture of the forts in the Highlands by
the British (Oct. 6th, 1777), only two of the Ulster Regiments, Mc-
Claughrey’s (Second) and Hasbrouck’s (Fourth) were on duty there,
but it only happened so because it was their ''turn.” The detachment of
200 men from Hasbrouck’s regiment, however, were not in the action;
it was stationed in Fort Constitution on the east side of the river, with
a company of Lamb’s artillery under Captain Ebenezer Mott, and with
that company were idle spectators of the desperate struggle on the west
side of the river where the defense of the forts fell upon McClaughry’s
detachment, detachments from Allison’s and Woodhull’s Orange County
regiments, two companies of Lamb’s artillery, and six companies of
Du Bois’s Fifth Continentals. Fort Montgomery, the largest and best
equipped, was on the north side of Poplopen Creek, and Fort Clinton
was on the south side of the same stream. Allison’s and Woodhull’s de-
tachments were in the latter, and McClaughrey’s in the former. Both
suffered heavily in killed, wounded and prisoners, the latter including
both of the commanders named and several of their subordinate officers.

FALL OF THE HIGHLAND FORTS.

The forts were defended with spirit and bravery. The enemy were
held in check from three in the afternoon until dusk when, in the final
bayonet charge of the assailants the defenders were overwhelmed by
numbers — they did not surrender! Governor Clinton and his brother
General James escaped over the parapets, the latter to the bed of the
creek, the former to the Hudson where a boat conveyed him to General

194

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

Putnam’s Headquarters at Peekskill. Colonel Du Bois was wounded, but
escaped over the parapets, as did many of his men. Governor Clinton
and Putnam were fairly outgeneralled by Sir Henry Clinton who com-
manded the British forces. Feigning an attack on Putnam, Sir Henry
threw a column of three thousand men on the west side of the river and
came upon the forts in the rear where there were no parapets and where
there were no cannon in place to defend. The forts could hardly be
classed as forts ; they were more strictly batteries for the defense of the
chain which had been stretched across the Hudson from Fort Mont-
gomery. The batteries taken the chain amounted to nothing; it was
quickly swept away. The chevaux-de-frise from Nicoll’s Point was more
formidable, but it was only a matter of a few days that intervened before
the navigation of the Hudson was opened for the raid of the British
fleet with Kingston as the immediate objective point and the forming
of a junction with Burgoyne the principal purpose. The Provincials lost
everything — forts, guns, powder, provisions, and clothing. The blow
was severe, but it inspired desperation. “Every man between sixteen and
fifty to the front !” rang out the order of Governor Clinton ; “Burgoyne
must be defeated or all is lost.”

BURNING OF KINGSTON.

Governor Clinton did not sleep. In his interview with Putnam plans
were formed for doing what could be done with the forces at their
command to protect the settlements along the river, and possibly prevent
a junction of the British forces with Burgoyne. Putnam was to move
up on the east side of the river, and Governor Clinton on the west, and
to strengthen the latter Putnam gave to him Webb’s Connecticut Con-
tinentals. On the morning of the 7th Clinton established headquarters
at the Falls House in upper New Windsor; fugitives from the forts
came in ; the militia came in and preparations were made to move to the
defense of Kingston as soon as the enemy passed the chevaux-de-frise.
While Governor Clinton was busy getting together his shattered forces,
his namesake. Sir Henry Clinton, was busy in destroying the forts and
in opening a clear passage in the chevaux-de-frise. This was completed

SERVICES OF THE KILITIA.

195

on the 1 2th,* and an armed schooner, two row galleys and a small brig
passed through and went up the river; on their return the British fleet
composed of the Friendship, 22 guns, the Molloy, the Dilligent, the
Dependence, the Spitfire, the Crane, the Raven and twenty galleys and
fiat boats, sailed through on the morning of the 13th. Governor Clinton’*^
forces were off too. Their route was on the west side of the Wallkill to
Marbletown where they arrived two hours too late, Kingston was in
flames ! Many of the First and Third militia regiments were away with
Gates or on the frontier. Governor Clinton had ordered the remainder to
Kingston and had directed them to throw up breastworks at the landing
and do everything that they could to check the advance of the enemy.
The militia responded by turning out one hundred and fifty men who
made the best defense they could, but were quickly dispersed. Sir John
Vaughan, who was in command of the British expedition, no doubt
wrote correctly the general facts of the attack and the defence of the
town in his report to Sir Henry Clinton, dated October 17th :

“I have the honor to inform you that on the evening of the 15th instant I arrived
off Esopus; finding that the rebels had thrown up works and had made every dis-
position to annoy us and cut off our communication, I judged it necessary to attack
them, the wind at that time being so much against us that we could make no way.
I accordingly landed the troops, attacked the batteries, drove them from their works,
spiked and destroyed their guns. Esopus being a nursery for almost every villain
in the country, I judged it necessary to proceed to that town. On our approach
they (the militia) were drawn up with cannon, which we took and drove them out
of the place. On entering the town they fired from their houses, which induced
me to reduce the place to ashes, which I accordingly did, not leaving a house. We
found a considerable quantity of stores which shared the same fate. Our loss is
so inconsiderable that it is not at present worth while to mention it.”

Sir James Wallace, who commanded the fleet wrote under the same
date :

“We arrived at Esopus Creek where we found two batteries, one of two guns
and one of three, and an armed galley at the mouth of the creek, who endeavored
to prevent our passing by their cannonade. General Vaughan was of opinion such
a force should not be left behind. It was determined to land and destroy them,
and immediately executed without reducing our proceeding up the river. The
General marched to the Town and fired it.”

• The chevaux-de-frise was not what Webster describes as “a piece of timber on an iron barrel
traversed with pointed spikes or spears,” but timbers about thirty feet long pointed with iron and
held on angle in cribs filled with stone sunk on the bottom of the river. It required time to
remove them; the boats of the British fleet v/ere employed for many hours in removing them.
Governor Clinton thought they would not have succeeded had not the carriage of the 24 lb.
cannon on Nicoll’s Point been broken. Something unfortunate seems to have been tappening all
the time.

196

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

An armed galley and some small vessels lying in the creek were
burned. Rivington’s Gazette added to the official report that ‘‘the rebels
deserted their guns and made no defence after the British forces landed.
The 13th, the date given by Lossing as that on which the burning
occurred, is not correct. Vaughan and Clinton wrote i6th. The Pro-
vincial Convention, and in its recess the Committee of Safety of that
body, had been holding sessions in Kingston since March 6th. The first
Constitution of the State had been adopted there and George Clinton
elected Governor under it. On the fall of the forts in the Highlands the
archives of the State and County were hurriedly taken to the Town of
Rochester, and also such army stores as could be removed. Most of the
inhabitants had also made retreat to the country with such possessions as
could be taken, and those who had not removed fled on the approach of
the British forces. Substantially the town was in the keeping of a limited
number of militiamen who, as shown by Vaughan’s report, made the
best defence they could. The dwellings were mostly low stone structures
in which the woodwork burned rapidly leaving blackened walls.* In
Rivington’s Gazette of November 3d, it is said: “326 houses with a
bam to most every one of them” were burned, but the precise number is
not certain. The excuse which Vaughan gave for burning the town was
probably coined for the occasion; he was sent out to destroy the place,
he intended to destroy it, and he did destroy it because it was the head-
quarters of the rebels in the then Province of New York. True, he
called it “A nursery of villains !” but he could not have paid to the people
of the town a higher compliment. He went but little further north, burn-
ing some buildings on Livingston Manor on the opposite side of the
river, and then turned back to New York, his last ship disappearing
below West Point on the 25th. Why did he return? He found that the
destruction of the forts and the obstructions in the Highlands had so
detained him that he was too late to help Burgoyne, who, when he heard
of the occurrences on the river below him, had already signed the agree-
fnent of capitulation. The six days that had been especially lost in re-
moving the chevaux-de-frise at Nicoll’s Point in order to give free pass-
age to the fleet, were important days. “As soon as I see that the enemy
is likely to pass the chevaux-de-frise” wrote Governor Clinton, and that

* Some of the dwellings were reroofed, the woodwork restored and remained in occupation for
years. The principal one now standing is “The Senate House,” a mecca to which the feet of
many of the Sons and Daughters of Ulster are turned with reverence.

SERVICES OF THE MILITIA.

197

evidence he did not have until the morning of the 13th. In other words,
the detention of the English fleet by the chevaux-de-frise, which had been
constructed by detachments from the militia was an important factor in
the surrender of Burgoyne. Had it not been in the river the fleet would
not have been delayed, and if the fleet had not been delayed Burgoyne
would not in all probability have been compelled to surrender, tlie
Province would have been dismembered and the contest for national
independence almost certainly lost.

A contributing cause leading to Burgoyne’s surrender was the delay
in receiving information from Sir Henry Clinton. The latter had dis-
patched a messenger to him, Daniel Taylor, on the 8th, but it so happened
that his steps led him into Governor Clinton’s camp at New Windsor.
Fairly caught he endeavored to conceal his mission by swallowing the
silver bullet in which it was encased. It was taken from him by an emetic,
and its contents read. Then Taylor was tried by court-martial and con-
demned as a spy, which he certainly was not. As a prisoner he was taken
with Clinton on the march to Kingston, and when Hurley was reached
and Kingston in flames came in view the soul of Daniel Taylor was sent
to its giver from the limb of an apple tree. A second messenger sent
by Sir Henry Clinton to Burgoyne did not reach him until the 14th. The
silver bullet and its message have been preserved, as has also a single
spear-head from the chevaux-de-frise, the factors which contributed so
largely to save the infant Republic. They seem to have been the master-
keys of an Overruling Power.

The re-building the Highland forts at West Point during the succeed-
ing winter and the placing of the historic chain across the river at that
point, pressed heavily upon the Ulster militia. The building of the walls
of Fort Putnam, and the redoubts known as Fort Wylis and Fort Webb
required men ; the Stirling Iron Works required one hundred and eighty-
two men to aid in making the chain, wood cutters, carters, men for
making steel, men for making iron, welders, etc. Although Washington
brought his Continental Army into the Highlands within supporting dis-
tance of the forts, it was not until the signing of the preliminary articles
of peace in April, 1782, that the militia of Ulster was relieved from duty.

198

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

CHAPTER XIV.

THE CONTINENTAL LINE.

WHILE the service of the Ulster Militia in local fields was, in de-
tachments and continuous during the entire war, its contribu-
tions to the Continental Line'*' was not less pronounced. Acting
in concert with New England legislators who regarded the invasion of
Canada as the most promising strategic movement, the Provincial authori-
ties of New York, in the summer of 1775, authorized the organization of
four regiments to serve for six months, commanded respectively by Alex-
ander McDougall, Goose Van Schaick, James Clinton and James Holmes.
The first was recruited in New York, the second in Albany, the third in
Ulster, and the fourth in Duchess, the last three, however, were more or
less mixed. They were fine bodies of young men, well armed and hand-
somely uniformed. The first had blue broadcloth dress-coats with crimson
cuffs and facings ; the second had light brown coats with blue cuffs and
facings; the third (Ulster) had gray coats with green facings and cuffs;
the fourth had dark brown coats with scarlet cuffs and facings. Their
breeches and waist-coats were of Russia drilling; the former were short
(to the knee) and the latter were long (to the hips). Their stockings
were long (to the knee) of “coarse woolen homespun,” low shoes, linen
cravats and low crowned broad brimmed felt hats. Drums and fifes they
had, and on parade were “very pleasant to the eye”; in the field their
dress was quite less showy.

The officers of the Third Regiment (Ulster) were:

James Clinton, Colonel; Edward Fleming Lieut. Colonel; Cornelius D. Wynkoop,
Major; George Slosser, Adjutant; James Hamilton, Qr. Master; Samuel Cooke,
Surgeon.

Captains — Daniel Griffin, John Nicholson, Jacobus Bruyn, Andrew Billings, Lewis

* The Continental Line was composed of organizations under pay of the Continental Congress,
and in service as the regular army and liable to duty in any part of the country, while the militia
as such could not be taken outside of the states in which they resided. Washington learned very
early in the war that the militia could not be a force which could be relied upon — that there must
be a regularly constituted army. It was the militia, however, who won the battle of Bennington,
and compelled the surrender of Burgoyne. For the making of an army no better material was
ever found than the men drawn from the militia of Ulster.

THE CONTINENTAL LINE.

199

Du Bois, John Hulbert, Elias Hasbrouck, John Grinnell, Daniel Denton, Robert
Johnson.

First Lieutenants — Benj. Marvin, Isaac Belknap, Thomas DeWitt, Ezekiel Cooper,
Elias Van Benschoten, John Davis, Cornelius T. Jansen, Wm. Phillips, Jr., Bal-
thazar De Hart, Martin Goetchius.

Second Lieutenants — Nathaniel Norton, David Du Bois, James Greeg, John Lang-
don, Cornelius Adriance, Wm. Havens, Albert Pawling, Philip Conkling, Jonas
Bellows, Philip Du Bois, Brevier.

The regiments were brigaded under General Richard Montgomery,
and marched away to Canada. The severity of the weather and the
fatigues of the march had reduced the four regiments to 900 effective
men on the first of December. Three weeks later Montgomery led them
“into the jaws of death” in the narrowest point under Cape Diamond. A
storm of grape-shot from an English battery swept him and both of his
aids from among the living and with them several privates. But the
story of the Canada campaign may be read elsewhere — we have not
room to repeat it here.

The term of service of the New York regiments (six months) soon
expired. Some of their members were willing to remain for another six
months, others had broken down, others had aspirations in other direc-
tions. The outcome was that from those who were willing to remain a
new regiment was formed, which may be called the fifth of the first
series of the New York Line. Captain John Nicholson, of Hanover Pre-
cinct, who had gone out with Clinton in the Third New York, and had
been therein promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, was appointed Colonel of
the new organization, and several of the officers from Ulster in the old
Third remained with him. The further prosecution of the invasion of
Canada having been abandoned, the regiment was sent to the northwest-
ern frontier, headquarters at what is now Johnstown, Fulton County,
and there completed its term of enlistment. Colonel Nicholson retired
from service with impaired health and closed his life on his farm. Ensign
Charles F. Weisenfels went into the new Third New York and attained
the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, and Gershom Mott became Captain in
Lamb’s Artillery. In brief, nearly all the officers who had served in the
Canada regiments of 1775, continued in subsequent organizations.

On the 8th of January, 1776, the Continental Congress issued its first
formal call for troops to reinforce the army in Canada under which a
single battalion was furnished by New York. The second call was issued
on the 19th of the same month and required four battalions from New

200

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

York. These battalions were assigned to Colonels Alexander McDougal,
James Clinton, Rudolphus Ritzema and Philip Van Cortlandt. To
Colonel Clinton’s (second) battalion Ulster County sent three companies
■ — Capt. John Belknap’s of New Windsor; Capt. William Jackson’s of
Hanover, and Capt. Cornelius Hardenberg’s of Hurley. They were all
short term regiments. The ist, 2d, and 3d regiments were assigned to
the defence of New York City, and were brigaded under Brigadier Gen-
erals Alex. McDougal and James Clinton, who had been promoted to that
rank. The second (Ulster) was sent to Saybrook, Conn., under Lieut.
Col. Henry B. Livingston. The 1st and 3d were in the battle at White
Plains and in the sharp fight at Chatterton’s Hill. Ritzema’s (third)
regiment, then under Lieut. Col. Weisenfall, suffered the greatest loss.
In the retreat through New Jersey the ist and 2d formed part of Lee’s
division, which subsequently joined Washington, and were in the surprise
and capture of the Hessians at Trenton, December 25th, 1776, the anni-
versary of the first grapple with the enemy at Quebec. Immediately
after they were ordered home, their terms of enlistment having expired.

The third call for men was issued by the Continental Congress on the
1 6th of September, 1776, for four regiments “to serve during the war” —
the grand old New York regiments of the Continental Army, which were
organized under the commands respectively of Colonels Goose Van
Schaick, Philip Van Cortlandt, Peter Gansevort and Henry B. Living-
ston. To Gansevort’s regiment (3d) Ulster sent three companies, viz:
Cornelius T. Jansen’s, Thomas R. De Witt’s, and James Gregg’s. With
other companies of Gansevort’s regiment they were shut up in Fort
Schuyler (old Fort Stanwix) in August, 1777, and defended that post
against the forces under St. Leger. Capt. Gregg was later caught in the
woods by the Indians and scalped. His little dog licked his wounds and
when the Captain recovered consciousness, was sent to the fort for as-
sistance. He was brought in and ultimately recovered. The story of Fort
Schuyler is an interesting chapter in the history of Burgoyne's
expedition.

To the number of regiments recruited under the call was added a fifth
recruited under Colonel Lewis Du Bois of Marlborough, who has been
met in Colonel Hasbrouck’s regiment of militia, and in Colonel James
Clinton’s Canada regiment. His regiment (the Fifth) was eminently

Noah Wolven.

THE CONTINENTAL LINE.

201

the Ulster County regiment of the New York Continental Line. Its
Field and Staff at organization were :

Lewis Du Bois, Colonel; Jacobus S. Bruyn, Lieut. Colonel; Samuel Logan, Major;
Henry Du Bois, Adjutant; Albert Pawling, Aid-Major; Nehemiah Carpenter,
Qr. Master; Sami. Townsend, Paymaster; John Gano, Chaplain; Samuel Cooke,
Surgeon; Ebenezer Hutchinson, Surgeon’s Mate.

Captains — i. Jacobus Rosekrans: 2. James Stewart; 3. Amos Hutchins; 4. Philip
Du Bois Bevier ; 5. Thomas Lee ; 6. Henry Goodwin ; 7. John F. Hamtrack ; 8. John
Johnson.

First Lieutenants— I. Henry Dodge; 2. Alexander McArthur; 3. Patton Jackson;
4o Michael Connelly; 5. Henry Pawling; 6. Solomon Pendelton; 7. Francis Hanmer;
8. Henry W. Van der berg. Henry Pawling was transferred to the regiment from
Gansevort’s.

Second Lieutenants — i. Samuel Dodge; 2. John Burnett; 3. John Furman; 4.

; 5. Samuel English; 6. Ebenezer Mott; 7. ; 8. James

Betts.

Ensigns — i. Henry Swartwout; 2. John McClaughrey; 3. ; 4.

; 5. James Johnson; 6. Abraham Leggett; 7. ; 8. Henry J.

Vanderbergh.

The figures refer to the companies in which the officers served. The
list is not the same in all respects as that given in 1777. (N. Y. Historical
Manuscript, P. 50) ; the changes subsequently made may be omitted
here.

The regiment was stationed in the spring of 1777, on garrison duty at
Forts Montgomery, Clinton and Constitution, in the Highlands, and was
there on the 6th of October of that year when the forts were captured
by the British forces under Sir Henry Clinton. In this action — the
first baptism of fire which the regiment had sustained — the losses of
the regiment were heavy. Lieutenant Colonel Bruyn, Major Logan and
Qr. Master Carpenter, Captain Goodman, Lieutenants McArthur,
Jackson, Pawling, Pendleton, Samuel Dodge, Furman and Mott; Ensigns
Swartwout, McClaughrey and Legg, and Sergeant Henry Schoonmaker,
were taken prisoners,* and “missing in action” was written on the roll-call
on the 7th against the names of ninety-six privates, some of whom,
however, had escaped from the forts in the final rush and reported for
duty later. Over one-third of the regiment in action were among the

* Several of these officers were not exchanged until the war was practically over. Militia
officers were not recognized as exchangeable. Line officers were exchanged for those of equivalent
rank, or for an equivalent number of privates, the exchange running from two privates for an
ensign to seventy-two privates for a colonel. The officers who were prisoners were carried on
the rolls and given half pay for life. Lieutenants Henry Schoonmaker and Henry Pawling
returned in 1780, and also Major Logan; Solomon Pendleton in 1781. Lieut. Colonel Jacobus
Severyn Bruyn was held on parole on Staten Island until near the close of the war. On the
organization of the “Society of Cincinnati” at Temple Hill, in New Windsor, May, 1783, twenty-
four Ulster County officers of the Line signed the roll as members.

202

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

killed, wounded and prisoners. The men lost all their clothing except
that which they had on them, and most of them their arms also. De-
moralized and broken as the regiment was, however, Colonel Du Bois
rallied its survivors around Governor Clinton at his headquarters in New
Windsor, and marched to the defence of Kingston. In the winter fol-
lowing the regiment was in barracks at Fishkill and in a deplorable con-
dition from the loss of clothing. General Putnam wrote in January, ’78:
''De Bois’s regiment is unfit to be ordered on duty, there being not one
blanket in the regiment, very few have either a shoe or a shirt, and most
of them have neither stockings, breeches or overalls.” Chastellux wrote
that many of them were absolutely naked, “being covered only by straw
suspended about the waist.” Of course this condition did not last long
after Governor Clinton heard of it. In July, 1778, the regiment was at
White Plains, Westchester County; in 1779, it was, with Colonel Du Bois
in command, under Brigadier-General James Clinton in the Sullivan
campaign against the Six Nations of Indians, and on the return of
that expedition was stationed at Fort Stanwix in the Mohawk Valley.
Here Colonel Du Bois resigned (Dec. 31, 1779) ;* and the regiment was
placed under Lieut. Colonel Marius Willett, formerly of the Third and
was in service under him in the events at Fort Stanwix in 1780. Colonel
Du Bois was also there in command of a regiment of “Levies of the
State to reinforce the Army of the United States,” and did most excellent
work in the battle of Klock’s Field, now in Montgomery County, on the
19th of October of that year. Later, what remained of the Fifth seems
to have been consolidated with the Fourth, and the latter with the Third,
and in that connection was under General James Clinton in the Siege of
Yorktown, October, 1781, From that last great battle of the war the
three remaining New York regiments came (Nov. 1782) to the last
encampment of the army of the Revolution at Temple Hill in New Wind-
sor, the home of the Second Ulster militia, and from thence, on the disso-
lution of the army by furlough (June, 1783), passed “out of mortal sight,

* The roster of officers of the regiment in the Sullivan campaign included Lewis Du Bois,
Colonel; Henry Du Bois, Adjutant and Captain Lieutenant; Henry Dodge, Captain and Lieu-
tenant; Michael Connoly, Pay-master and Second Lieutenant; James Johnston, Quarter-master
and Ensign; Samuel Cooke, Surgeon; Ebenezer Hutchins, Surgeon’s Mate; Captains — James
Rosenkrans, John F. Hamtrack, John Johnston, Philip Du Bois Bevier, James Stewart; Henry
W. Vanderburgh, Lieutenant, Daniel Birdsall and James Betts, Second Lieutenants; Bartholf
Vanderburgh Francis Hammer, and Henry Vanderburgh, Ensigns. Lieutenant Colonel Bruin,
Major Samuel Logan and other officers who were taken prisoners at Fort Montgomery in
October, 1777, were still in captivity, and their places on the active roll could not be filled. This
condition of affairs led to the resignation of Colonel Du Bois and to the consolidation of the
regiment with other regiments of the New York line.

THE CONTINENTAL LINE.

203

but into immortal history.” Perhaps in the future a son of Ulster will
compile the personal record of every man who stood in the ranks in the
fray that 'Von a rescued world.” Meanwhile their names on the rolls is
their monument.

204

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

CHAPTER XV.

KINGSTON

1652-1777.

By Howard Hendricks.

HE ancient history of this old town, covering its first century-and-a-

quarter, is so fully treated on the preceding pages by Mr. Rutten-

her, that it seems unnecessary to repeat or elaborate the details
in this chapter. The events and doings during that primitive period of
the settlement’s existence being in fact the history of Ulster County, it
was proper to treat the subject at length in the general article referred to..

Geographically the present city is on the west bank of the Hudson River,,
about midway between the northern and southern limits of Ulster County.
The Rondout Creek forms its southern boundary and affords a fine
stretch of navigable water-front with ample and advantageous wharfage.
The Esopus Creek flows along the northern boundary, making a sweeping
curve to the Hudson twelve miles north. On the east is the broad and
majestic Hudson and the new town of Ulster, and on the north and west
are the towns of Ulster and the remnant of the original town of Kings-
ton, which still retains that name. Between the Rondout and the Esopus
is a comparatively level plain, high, with precipitous banks, rising to
bluffs along the river. On the west and north are the low, alluvial lands
of the Esopus valley, which rise gradually to hills and mountains beyond.
The river bluffs are often interspersed by pleasant slopes, producing a
great variety of scenic effect, much of which is strangely rugged, and all
wondrously picturesque.

Among the aboriginal names of places in this section are “Waronaw-
anka,” at (or on) a cove or bay; “Sepuus,” a brook, by corruption,
“Esopus,” and “Atkarkarton,” as generally written, and according to
the version of Marius Schoonmaker, the Kingston historian, but lately
written, “Atharhacton,” by Dr. Corwin and others. The meaning of
either of these appellations is uncertain, though claimed to have been

Howard Hendricks.

KINGSTON.

205

the name of the “Groot Plat” (Great Flat) on the north and west of the
town.

The ancient Dutch name “Wildwijk,” now ‘‘Wiltwyck/’ is still re-
tained in the latter form in some connections, and often locally applied
to the central section of the present city, for some occult reason. The old
Dutch “Rondhout” is now “Rondout,” and the Dutch “Punthockje,” the
point of a small cone or bay, has given place to “Ponckhockie.”

The “Columbus Point” of ancient days is now known as “Kingston
Point.” The “two little Indian houses” that once stood on its southerly
side, have given way to the commerce and traffic of a large section of
country and the busy traverse of trolleys and steam cars.

It would indeed be interesting to trace the orthographical metamorpho-
sis of these ancient Dutch and Indian names which adorn the old records,
if the limits of space allowed.

THE CRADLE OF NEW YORK STATE.

KINGSTON, 1 777- 1 907.

Kingston was the cradle of New York State, and the infant common-
wealth began its career amid scenes of turmoil and the smoke of battle.
The enemy were encamped on every side, and Governor Clinton scarcely
dared to leave his post in the army long enough to assume the affairs of
State. But victory was in the air and every man of the patriot band in
the field was inspired with new courage. The triumph of liberty was
about to dawn.

Among the first to congratulate Governor Clinton was Dominie Doll,
pastor of the old Dutch church in Kingston, which had borne so conspicu-
ous a part in the long struggle against oppression. In this he wrote, “All
have pledged their lives and fortunes to support and defend you in this
exalted station, and the Consistory of Kingston cheerfully unite in the
implicit stipulation, and promise you their prayers.”

The Legislature of the new State had been called to meet at Kingston,
August 1st. But the condition of the country was such it was considered
unsafe to convene that body until the twentieth, when it was again pro-
rogued until September i, for the Same reason. The assembly finally met
and organized on that day, but the Senate was not in session urtil nine
days later, for lack of a quorum. Thus, on the tenth of September, 1777.

2o6

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

the Legislature of the new State became fully organized and the wheels
of government were started. The three departments, the legislative, the
executive, and the judicial, were thus launched together in Kingston.
Being unable to occupy the Court House, because of the session of the
Supreme Court, the Assembly organized at the hotel of Evert Bogardus,
corner of Maiden Lane and Fair streets.

This was the first Court under the first Constitution of the new State,
and it was opened by Chief Justice Jay on the ninth of September, 1777.
The Grand Jury was composed of 22 of the best men in the county. On
that day Chief Justice Jay delivered the first charge to a Grand Jury of
which there is any record. It was a memorable judicial address of great
importance, and will stand as a model for all time. A single sentence only
is quoted here. “The Americans are the first people whom Heaven has
favored with an opportunity of deliberating upon and choosing the forms
of government under which they should live ; all other constitutions have
derived their existence from violence or accidental circumstances.”

OLD SENATE HOUSE.

The Senate organized at the house of Abraham Van Gaasbeek, corner
of Clinton Avenue (then East Front Street) and North Front Street. This
ancient stone structure, now known as the “Old Senate House,” was
built in 1676 by Col. Wessel Ten Broeck. It was owned by Van Gaasbeek
during the Revolution, and afterward passed successively to Sarah, wife
of Peter Van Gaasbeek, F. E. Westbrook, and Mrs. Marius Schoonmaker,
who sold it to the State in 1887. It was then thoroughly repaired, pre-
serving the ancient features as far as possible, and has since been kept as
a sacred relic and memento of the historic past, where the antiquarian
and curious may find a large collection of articles pertaining to bygone
years. It is visited by thousands from every land, and the number in*
creases every year. It is built of native limestone except the rear wall,
which is of large brick imported from Holland. The mortar used in these
massive walls over 200 years ago, is to-day solid as adamant.

The regular sessions of the Legislature were held in this house until
the meetings were broken up by the near approach of the British forces
after the capture of Fort Montgomery in the Highlands of the Hudson,
Oct. 4, 1777. On receipt of this news in Kingston, Oct. 7, the Legislature
dispersed, the members rushing to join the patriot army, and in defense of

KINGSTON.

207

their families. Governor Clinton, who had been inaugurated in Kingston
three months before, having remained in command at the Fort, was there
overwhelmed by the enemy, he himself having slid down a precipice
toward the river and escaped in a boat. With the destruction of these
forts there was nothing to hinder the advance of the British up the river
under Sir Henry Clinton, and the defenseless homes of Kingston were
thus endangered.

Governor Clinton wrote the Council of Safety, in session here, that he
was trying to rally his scattered forces, persuade the Militia to join him
and make a forced march to the defense of Kingston. But he found the
soldiers too solicitous about the safety of their families to remain on duty.
Meanwhile the Legislature at Kingston, realizing the importance of imme-
diate action, formed a “joint Convention for the State to provide for the
Public Safety.” Pierre Van Cortlandt, president of the Senate, was
chosen president of this Convention. A new Council of Safety was ap-
pointed, with William Floyd as president. This Council met Oct. 8 and
ordered all persons then in jail here, transferred to Hartford, Conn., in the
expectation of the enemy’s attack. Two days later all male inhabitants of
the district capable of service were ordered to secure arms and ammuni-
tion, and hold themselves in readiness to meet the foe. All money in the
State treasury at Kingston, public records, and other State property, were
packed in boxes and removed to Rochester, by Gerard Bancker, the vice
State treasurer; i 1,000 were, however, kept for immediate use, subject
to the order of the Council.

On Oct. II, Governor Clinton was advised by the Council that the local
Militia had been ordered to rendezvous at Kingston and Shawangunk.
On the same day the British commander, Clinton, sent a reconnoitering
expedition toward Poughkeepsie. Finding the way comparatively clear,
the marauding expedition of Gen. Vaughan was easily organized. This
consisted of 7 naval vessels and some 20 galleys and flatboats, with 1,600
men. The start was made from Peekskill Oct. 14, and the fleet anchored
off Esopus Island next day. They were discovered by Governor Clinton’s
men early in the morning, and he at once expressed a letter to the Council
of Safety at Kingston, warning of the enemy’s approach. His reinforce-
ments had not arrived, but he sent all his available troops on to Kingston
in great haste, feeling sure the new State capital, and at that time the
capital of the nation, would be the object of attack.

2o8

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

Meanwhile the Council of Safety was in session in Kingston at the
tavern of Conrad Elmendorf, on the southeast corner of Maiden Lane and
Fair streets, which is still standing. The last session of this famous Coun-
cil was indeed a memorable meeting.

burgoyne's surrender.

It was on the afternoon of Oct. 15, 1777, and the members present were
Pierre Van Cortlandt, president, Messrs. Yates, Dunscomb, Floyd, Van
Zandt, Parks, Scott, Webster, Rowan, Harper, Pawling and Morris. It
was at this meeting the news of Burgoyne’s surrender was received. One
Eernardus Hallenbeek was the bearer of the letter, and he was promptly
voted a reward of £50.

For this news the people of Kingston had waited long. The final over-
throw of foreign oppression and misrule was now assured, and the banner
of Liberty was in the sky. But there was little time for rejoicing. The
redcoats were rapidly approaching from the south, and the town was
practically defenseless. The patriot forces under Governor Clinton could
not reach Kingston in time to repel the invaders. Even at that moment,
the alarm guns were booming, and the enemy was about to land at King-
ston Point, at the mouth of Rondout Creek, then known as “Columbus
Point.” About five o’clock that afternoon, the Council sent word to Gov-
ernor Clinton, who was then on his way to Kingston, of the enemy’s
approach, also the Burgoyne dispatch. But the messenger proved dilator}^
and stopped for the night at a wayside farmhouse.

Having pushed on ahead of the army, Clinton arrived with his staff
about 9 o’clock that night. He found great commotion, and the most
intense excitement prevailed. The defenseless people were packing their
goods and valuables and fleeing out of reach of the vandal hordes as fast
as possible. They went to Hurley, Marbletown, Rochester and Wawar-
sing. Finding it im^possible for his troops to reach Kingston in time, he
sent word that they should proceed no further and repaired to Marble-
town himself on the morning of Oct. 16.

Meanwhile Vaughan’s forces had already anchored at the mouth of the
creek and opened a heavy fire upon the galley Lady Washington which
lay in the stream, and upon the batteries and earthworks, which had been
hastily thrown up on the Ponckhockie heights, where five light cannon
were in position. This fire was returned for some time, but there was

Old Senate House — 1 777.

KINGSTON.

209

little damage on either side. Soon after noon Vaughan’s soldiers began
to land in two divisions, one at the Old Cantine dock on the creek, and the
other in the cove north of the Point. The breastworks were stormed and
carried at the point of the bayonet, there being only 150 men under Cols.
Pawling and Snyder, who had already spiked the guns. The only three
houses on the creek were burned, and a negro was seized and compelled
to guide the invaders to Kingston.

Th^ news of Burgoyne’s capture was conveyed to Vaughan by Jacobus
Lefferts, a New York city Tory who was then living in Kingston with his
family. But Vaughan knew there was ample time to carry out his despic-
able purpose here and that he would meet with little or no resistance.

The veracious and careful historian, Marius Schoonmaker, says that
old residents of Kingston who were in the Militia on that memorable occa-
sion told him, there was an armed body of patriots, 100 strong, concealed
in the woods near where the City Hall now stands, and that some of these
men begged permission to fire and pick otf some of the officers of this
invading force as they passed on their way to Kingston, but the com-
mander forbade it. The fact seems to be, nearly everybody had fled from
their homes and the enemy met no resistance on reaching the village, in
spite of the apologetic language of Gen. Vaughan in his official report, in
which he sought to show that the people fired upon his troops from their
houses and for that reason he was ‘‘induced to reduce the place to ashes,
which I accordingly did, not leaving a house.”

BURNING OF KINGSTON.

The troops scattered into small parties and fired all the buildings on
every street as rapidly as possible, gathering what plunder they could, and
returning to their ships in three hours. They knew Clinton’s army was on
the way, and they fled to the Point in great confusion, expecting any mo-
ment to meet the advance of the patriots. The Governor’s order to halt,
if ever received at all, must have been countermanded, because the ad-
vance division of Clinton’s forces arrived an the Kuykuyt Hill, now called
Golden Hill, or Keykout, in time to see the whole village in flames and the
red-coated vandals fleeing to their ships.

The New York Gazette, a Royalist paper, of November 3, 1777, in
its account of this expedition, says, that 326 houses, with a barn to almost
every one of them, filled with flour, grain, crops of all kinds, furniture and

210

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

effects, were destroyed. 12,000 barrels of flour, 14 cannon, and 1,150
stands of arms were burned or blown up.

Immediately after this overpowering calamity Governor Clinton con-
centrated his forces at Hurley, having sent the sad news to Gen. Gates at
Albany. Thereupon Gates, on October 19, sent the following stinging
letter to Gen. Vaughan who led this marauding gang.

“With unexampled cruelty, you have reduced the fine village of Kings-
ton to ashes, and most of the wretched inhabitants to ruin. I am also in-
formed, you continue to ravage and burn all before you on both sides of
the river. Is it thus your King’s generals think to make converts to the
Royal cause? It is no less surprising than true, that the measures they
adopt to serve their master, must have quite the contrary effect. Their
cruelty establishes the glorious act of Independence, upon the broad basis
of the general resentment of the People.

“Other Generals, and much older officers than you can pretend to be,
are now by the fortune of war in my hands; their fortune may one day
be yours, when, sir, it may not be in the power of anything human to save
you from the just vengeance of an injured People.

Horatio Gates.”

The full force of this staggering blow to Kingston and its people can-
not be described. All they had in the world was destroyed. Even their
winter stores were gone. They had neither shelter nor food. But the
fire of patriotism had been kindled anew in every bosom, and it burned
brighter than ever. The women who had been driven from their homes
were inspired with righteous vengeance, and the gratifying news of
British defeat, over which they had not even been permitted to rejoice,
now gave them new courage.

The only building that escaped this fire was the Van Steenburgh House,
which is still standing on the westerly side of Wall St., foot of Franklin
St, A suitable tablet was placed in the wall a few years since by the
Wiltwyck Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution. The house
of the Tory, Lefferts, which stood on the present site of John Forsythe’s
residence, back from Albany Ave., was also saved, but this was outside
of the stockade.

An old document giving a list of sufferers from this fire, contains 113
names, and states that there were 115 dwellings, 103 barns, 146 barracks.

KINGSTON.

2II

17 storehouses, including a market and a brewhouse, a church, an Aca-
demy, 2 Schoolhouses and a Court House destroyed.

This wanton act aroused a thrill of sympathy which quickly spread
over the land, and there was a cry of indignation and shame on all sides.
Though the people were impoverished by war and oppression, donations
and offers of assistance were received from various parts of the country.
From the sister State of South Carolina, came a check from Abraham
Livingston in behalf of her citizens, for £3711.10. Robert R. Livingston
gave 5000 acres of land, which was subsequently divided into fifty-acre
lots arranged into ten classes of ten lots each, and then allotted to the
Kingston sufferers. As the winter was approaching, they did what they
could to provide shelter. Most of the houses being of stone, many of the
walls were still standing. Roofs were put on and lean-tos added. But
their barns and crops were gone and some sort of shelter was needed for
the stock. It was indeed a crucial period for these sturdy patriots. But they
had been reared in the bitter school of adversity and they were undaunted
now. They resolved to surmount every obstacle. Materials and labor
were high, and building was only possible with a few men of means.
Governor Clinton was appealed to for assistance and reminded of the
faithful loyalty and persevering assistance of the Kingston people. He
gave prompt response and did what he could for their relief.

Christopher Tappen was then the Deputy County Clerk and clerk of the
corporation of Kingston. It is said his family devoted their entire ener-
gies toward the preservation of the public records at the expense of losing
all his chattels and private papers in the fire.

There are many incidents connected with this burhing of Kingston
which have been related with considerable detail by veracious writers.
Some of these would be of interest to the general reader even now. But
unless presented with some detail much of the interest would be lost ; and
there is so much of the actual historic record pertaining to this important
town, the writer feels scarcely justified in using the space with such minor
incidents. The following Dutch doggerel, characteristic of the flight to
Hurley, having now become a local classic, will, however, be quoted.
“Loop, jongens, loop, de Rooje Komme. Span de wagon Voor de paerde,
en vy na Hurley toe.” The English version would be “Run, boys, run, the
red-coats are coming. Harness the horses before the wagon, and to Hurley
ride.”

212

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

The stores and effects so hastily removed to Hurley were carefully
guarded by the Militia. On Oct. 21, Governor Clinton wrote Gen. Gates,
fully explaining the situation, and giving the reason for his inability to
prevent the attack upon Kingston. He showed how Gen. Putnam had
sent him less than 400 troops, when he asked for 3000, how other rein-
forcements had been refused him, and how, if the enemy landed in force,
he must either retreat and leave the entire section to be ravaged and de-
stroyed, or sacrifice his few men and the valuable artillery, for lack of
troops. He said: “Kingston hath been destroyed merely because I have
been so deceived in my expectations of assistance, that it was impossible
to take measures for its security.”

If Vaughan had intended to proceed to Albany, the plan was abandoned
after Burgoyne’s surrender. He rejoined the British forces in the High-
lands Oct. 24. The Council of Safety reconvened in Marbletown and
recommended a distribution of the distressed persons and families of
Kingston, with their cattle, through the counties of Ulster, Dutchess,
Orange and Westchester, where they might be furnished with shelter and
subsistence at a moderate price. The Council continued there for a
time, and afterward met at Hurley until Dec. 17, when it adjourned to
Poughkeepsie and continued there until Jan. 7, 1778.

Governor Clinton was again appealed to for relief on Feb. 9, by a
Kingston committee, which reminded him of the enemy’s bitter resent-
ment, which had been incurred by the conspicuous service and loyalty of
the people, and which had led to the destruction of all their property.
This brought such relief as lay in his power. The Court House was
ordered rebuilt at public expense; those engaged in rebuilding the town
were exempted from military duty, and other measures were adopted.
In this way some of the houses were partially restored.

The first election for trustees and other corporation officers after the
fire, was held the first Tuesday in March, 1778, at the Van Steenburgh
House on Wall St. The British forces under Sir Henry Clinton, had
then returned to New York, but their Indian allies and the Tory blood-
hounds were still menacing the people of this section. The cruelty of the
Tories far exceeded that of the red-coats. In some cases they covered
themselves with war-paint in imitation of the savage warriors and seemed
destitute of every vestige of humanity, being inspired with hatred of their
country and their liberty loving countrymen. A single instance, showing

The Du Flon House.

KINGSTON.

213

the difference between the Tory and the Indian nature, will illustrate
this fact. Entering a house where a child was sweetly sleeping in its
cradle, the Indian withheld his tomahawk because of the infant’s smile.
But the Tory stepped quickly forward and cleaved the skull of the inno-
cent babe with a single blow, rebuking the savage for his tenderness.
Some of these Tories served as spies for the Indians, and no man was
safe in the border settlement, who openly avowed the cause of liberty.
Savage raids by Indian bands, with Tory allies for purposes of robbery,
and to procure scalps for redemption by the British, were frequent.

After the fire these Kingston patriots took their full share of the trials
and suffering incident to the conflict. They were in constant dread of the
bloody attacks of the Tories and Indians, who were instigated by British
emissaries still infesting the region.

The town was fortified with timber stockades, and guards were kept
at various points of approach. Although the hostile armies were now in
other parts of the country, Kingston, throughout the whole period, and
until the last shot was fired, furnished its full quota of men and materials
for the support and defense of the country. No section endured more
hardships or rendered more patriotic and effective service to the cause of
Independence, than this colonial town.

The recognition of Independence by France in Feb., 1778, and her
alliance with the cause, dispelled every doubt as to the ultimate success
of the war, and the contest was soon ended.

WASHINGTON VISITS KINGSTON.

Kingston was honored by a visit from Gen. Washington in November,
1782. On his arrival in the town with his staff, he was met by the trus-
tees and a large body of citizens. Henry J. Sleght, president of the
Board, made the address of welcome to which Washington responded
in these words : ‘Wour polite and friendly reception of me proves your

sincerity. While I view with indignation the marks of a wanton and
cruel enemy, I perceive with the highest satisfaction, that the heavy
calamity which befell this flourishing settlement, seems but to have added
to the patriotic spirit of its inhabitants ; and that a new town is fast rising
out of the ashes of the old. That you and your worthy constituents may
long enjoy that freedom for which you have so nobly contended, is the

214

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

sincere wish of your most obedient humble servant, George Washington.’*

The Consistory of the old Dutch Church united heartily in this greeting
of the hero, and also presented him with an appropriate address, the re-
sponse to which was in his own writing, and is now a cherished memento
occupying a niche in the vestibule wall of the present church structure.
On that occasion Washington stopped at the Bogardus Tavern before
alluded to. After dining with his staif, at the house of Dirck Wynkoop
in Green St., he attended a ball that evening given in his honor, at the
Bogardus Tavern, where the ladies were introduced to him. He resumed
his journey to West Point early next morning.

Two weeks later a preliminary Treaty of Peace was signed, and the
war was ended; although the final Treaty, acknowledging the Inde-
pendence of the United States was not signed until Sept. 3, 1783.

As the people of Kingston had been among the foremost and firmest
in this battle for liberty, enduring the most tremendous sacrifices with
undaunted courage, never doubting the final result, they were now most
exuberant in their rejoicing over the glorious termination of the conflict.

KINGSTON AT THE CLOSE OF THE REVOLUTION.

During the war a large part of Kingston was an open Common, wholly
without buildings. These “Plains,” as they were called, embraced all the
territory east of a line drawn from Pearl to St. James Streets, at about
Fair St. This was then laid out in building lots and every purchaser was
bound to build and improve his lot within two years, or forfeit £6o and his
lot. Many failed to build and much trouble resulted. Finally in Feb.,
1790, it was decided that if these delinquents would reconvey their lots
to the trustees, their forfeits would be returned. These Plains included
the present Academy site, which was a sporting ground and skating-
pond for the boys, known as the “Water-ploss.” Beyond the junction of
Maiden Lane and Albany Ave. were the “Second Plains,” which were
used as a military parade ground.

In 1783, when Congress was looking for a site for the Capital of the
new Republic, these Dutch burghers tried to impress upon that body the
peculiar appropriateness of these Kingston “Plains.” They took prompt
action in the matter too, and were heartily seconded by the Legislature.
They offered a square-mile of land within the town limits, which offer was

KINGSTON.

215

conveyed to the Congress at Philadelphia in March, 1783, by Governor
Clinton himself. The matter was deferred until the first Monday in Oct.
in connection with similar offers from Annapolis, Md., and other points.
In September the grant of land was increased to two-miles square. But
no action was taken at the time, and the choice of the National Capital
was finally bestowed elsewhere.

Meanwhile the old Court House was rebuilt, with the jail and dungeon
in the south end. There was a whipping-post in the front yard, and a
regular town-whipper was appointed. There were also stocks for the
punishment of minor offenses.

In 1797 the Legislature authorized the organization of a Fire Depart-
ment, to be made up of men living within half-a-mile of the Court House.
A fire-engine was purchased in place of the one burned, and Conradt Ed.
Elmendorf was made Captain, and thus became the first Fire Chief of
Kingston. This company was disbanded in 1802 and a new one formed,
with Nicholas Vanderlyn, Jr., at the head.

The town poor had been under the care of the trustees since the incor-
poration, both by charter and legislative enactment. Poor people could
not be brought into the town unless some responsible freeholder became
security for their care. The matter of building an almshouse was fre-
quently discussed, even until 1799, but nothing was done.

EARLY FINANCIAL CONDITION OF KINGSTON.

It is interesting to note the financial status of Kingston at the opening
of the nineteenth century. On the thirtieth of June, 1800, the committee
thus reported : Interest due on bonds and notes, £345-6-6. Rent in arrear
3171 bush, of wheat @ 8/, £1268-8, 733 fowls, £36-13. Total liability,
£1650-7-6. Annual income: 720 bush, wheat for rent @ 8/ £288, £3600
out at interest, whereof about £600 are bad debts, £180, About $200 annual
excise, £80, Rent payable in money, £16-17. Total income £564-17. In
April, 1803, the sale and conveyance of lands known as the “Commons,”
was finally authorized. Heads of families, natives of the town, having an
estate of £200 received a 45-acre lot on payment of $16.50. Those having
iioo got a 30-acre lot for $30. Those who came in town after 1777 had
to pay $40. for their lot.

2i6

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

ANCIENT POLITICS OF KINGSTON.

Soon after the formation of the new Republic, politics began to assert
itself, and early in the new century the strife between the factions then
known as the “Federalists and Republicans,” became bitter. Thus after
a sharp contest in the spring of 1804, the old Federalist Board of Trustees
was routed at the polls and replaced by Republicans. The sale of lands
had left a handsome fund in the treasury after the payment of debts and
the support of the poor. The records do not show any important service
of this new Board until the near approach of the March election. Then a
radical political measure worthy of a later period, was decided upon under
the guise of religious fervor. Various sums of money were voted to the
three Dutch churches, the parent church in Kingston, and the churches
at Brabant and Klyne Esopus. But, as so often happens in these modern
times, the trustees were defeated, and the new Board found a depleted
treasury.

KINGSTON VILLAGE.

Kingston was duly incorporated as a village April 6, 1805. John Van
Steenbergh, James S. Bruyn, Tobias Van Buren, Philip Van Keuren, and
Barent Gardinier, were chosen Directors, and Tobias Van Buren became
the first president of the village. Matters were amicably adjusted be-
tween the new village and the old corporation trustees. A new fire-engine
was purchased, and many additional precautions against fire were adopted
and enforced ; as the place had been visited with a most disastrous fire in
that year. On or about that time there was an outbreak of malarial fever
with typhoid features, in the new village, and it prevailed for some years
afterward. The trouble was finally attributed to the old Bogardus Mill-
pond west of Green St. This was condemned and drained in 1806. Mr.
Bogardus demanded damages because the pond had supplied the mill with
power for over 100 years and he received $500 in settlement.

In 1811 the town of Kingston was divided by setting off the present
town of Saugerties on the north, and Esopus on the south. The trustees
of the old corporation however rebelled and refused to make the proper
transfer on the ground that the act was unconstitutional. They were
indicted by the Grand Jury and brought to trial, and the case went to the
higher court. The people stood by the trustees and reelected them annu-

The De Wall Tavern.

KINGSTON.

217

ally until 1815. But they finally lost, and were supplanted by a new
Board in March, 1816, and the old corporate existence of 130 years was
permanently dissolved. Concerning- these old trustees it was said they
were always chosen from the leading citizens of the town, and always
labored for the triumph of right and justice. The same careful writer
adds : “Such an incorporation as that would be out of place now.” A new
Court House and a fire-proof County Clerk’s office was built in 1818, the
lines of the old structure being preserved as far as possible.

The capture of Washington in 1814 caused great alarm throughout
the land, and every citizen of Kingston liable to military duty, went forth
in defense of his country. But all returned unharmed three months later,
and on the seventeenth of the following February, the old village was
publicly illuminated in token of the joy over the return of the blessings
of peace.

With the return of business prosperity the Kingston people began to
build new and better houses and to improve the old ones. Instead of a
bridge across the Esopus creek, as now, there was only a fording-place
previous to 1790. The second bridge there was carried away by a freshet
in March, 1818.

FIRST ROAD-BUILDING.

The business people of the town soon saw the need of a roadway or
thoroughfare, to reach the trade of the interior toward Delaware county,
the west and north. This led to the building of the Ulster & Delaware
Plank Road which was originally designed to extend into Chenango
county, 104 miles distant. Much of this road was finally built at an aver-
age cost of $1,000 per mile. But the company became overwhelmed in
debt from which it never emerged. The income from the tollgates was
totally inadequate, and the road was sold and divided into districts. But
the interior trade was secured. Meanwhile several other road projects
had been started with little success. Among these was the “Neversink
Turnpike Road,” leading from Kingston to the Delaware river at Cochec-
ton. Lucas Elmendorf, a prominent and wealthy citizen, was the con-
trolling spirit in this enterprise, and he pushed the road to partial com-
pletion. Hence the name given to Lucas Avenue. He is said to have
spent $40,000 in the enterprise and lost it all. It therefore appears that
the matter of road-building received some attention in this old town

2i8

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

nearly a hundred years ago, crude and faulty as these early efforts and
methods would be regarded now.

In addition to the old King’s Highway, leading from Albany to New
York on the east side of the Hudson, there was communication with
these cities by water in sloops in those early days, and later in steamboats.

SPEED OF OLD AND MODERN STEAMBOATS COMPARED.

Passengers were regularly carried in sailing vessels even down to 1820,
and later. But the trip from Kingston to New York was a voyage of
several days at best, depending upon wind and tide, and was not wholly
unattended with danger at times. While the principal part of the sloop
was devoted to freight, there was always a cabin fitted with ten or more
berths for the accommodation of passengers, the crew using the fore-
castle for cooking and lodging. The custom was to arrange congenial
parties for this New York trip, because of the time required. During
adverse winds when no progress could be made, the vessel would anchor,
and the passengers went ashore and had a good time. They could either
bring their own provisions, or board with the Captain. Each had a big
chest which was usually stocked with cooked food, and there was always
an apartment at one end with well filled flasks of Holland Gin, a favorite
beverage those days. As the commercial intercourse of Kingston in-
creased, this sloop traffic finally grew into a weekly service by a regular
packet line to New York. Soon after that, rival lines entered the field;
one owned by Abraham Hasbrouck, the other by William Swart.

The first steamboat to enter the Rondout creek seems to have been the
'‘New London,” in 1826; and she came towing the hull of a vessel built
for steam, to an anchorage. There had then been regular steamboat
traffic on the river for some fifteen years or more. This competition be-
tween rival lines brought the fare down, lessened the time to New York,
and at length displaced the sloop passenger traffic entirely.

The opening of the Delaware and Hudson Canal in 1829 brought a new
era in this river traffic. More sloops were added to the four already
plying to New York from Kingston. The steamer “Congress” began to
carry passengers and freight between Twaalf skill (Wilbur) and New
York in 1829, and she was doubtless the first passenger steamboat on this
route. The next was the “Hudson,” in 1831, and soon after that came the
famous old “Norwich,” which has been kept afloat ever since, and is

KINGSTON.

219

to-day known as the “Ice King” of the Hudson, belonging to the Cornell
Towing Line. The writer well recalls his first trip to New York on this
historic boat, while she was serving as the “Palatial Passenger Steamer”
between Kingston and New York. His uncle was the captain, and the lad
was in charge of his grandfather. The “Norwich” was built in 1836,
for passenger .service between New York and Norwich, Conn. Being too
small for the Sound service, she was sent here, where she has been nearly
ever since, enjoying the distinction of being the oldest steamboat in the
world now in service.

The normal speed of those steamers at that time was less than 8 miles
an hour, and the schedule time between Kingston and New York was
12 hours. But this time was usually exceeded. There were few or no
staterooms, and there was always a grand scramble for the best berths
or bunks. Little was heard then of the grand scenic beauties of the
Hudson, and its glorious Highlands. The old Dutch settlers were too
much absorbed in the practical affairs of life to indulge in sentiment.
These river trips were, therefore, made by night, and it was not until
some years later that the day line was started.

FIRST KINGSTOBT DAY LINE.

In 1854 the “Alida,” which had been running as an independent line
three times a week from Wilbur, since November 4, 1853, began daily
trips between Kingston and New York, April 18, 1854, leaving here at
6:15 A. M. and returning from New York at 4 p. m. “Through in Five
Hours,” was the slogan, and she continued these trips until the following
October. Her first daily run was a great event for the people of
Kingston, who could then leave home in the morning, transact their New
York business, and get back at night. Strange to say this boat seems to
have made nearly as good time on this route then as the famous “Mary
Powell” makes now, with her improved model and modern machinery.
But the project proved a failure financially, as it was ahead of time and
not warranted by the traffic. The boat had been purchased from Abram
Van Santvoord, who was then operating a day-line of steamers between
Albany and New York. Marius Schoonmaker, William Masten and
Nicholas Elmendorf, the owners, lost heavily in the venture. One reason
given now by an old resident familiar with the project is, “there were too

220

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

many captains.’’ In July, i860, the “Alida” ran from New York to
Pokeepsie in 3 hours and 27 minutes, making five landings.

This Kingston daily service was resumed a few years later by the
“Thomas Powell,” which was replaced in 1862 by the “Mary Powell,” the
favorite Kingston day-boat ever since. She is to-day one of the most
famous river steamboats in the world. Her lucky model made her with-
out a rival for speed for many years, and her supremacy on the Hudson
is rarely questioned. Her record time. New York to Rondout, including
8 landings, is 4 hours and 12 minutes. Almost during her entire career
the “Powell” has been in command of a Captain Anderson. First it was
Captain A. L. Anderson, son of Nathan Anderson, an old resident boat-
man, and afterward Captain A. E. Anderson, son of the former, who is
still in command. She has traveled over a million miles, and carried about
six million passengers.

Among other steamers running from this port at different times were
the “Emerald,” “Santa Claus,” “Splendid,” “Mohegan,” “North Amer-
ica,” “Rip Van Winkle,” “Thomas Cornell,” “City of Kingston,” “James
W. Baldwin” (now “Central Hudson”), and “William F. Romer.”

In the olden time Columbus Point, now Kingston Point, was the river
landing for Kingston and the surrounding country. Stage lines were run
from the village to the Point; and for a time there was fierce opposition
between rival lines, with dangerous racing and reckless forcing of ma-
chinery, which finally resulted in the burning of the “Henry Clay,” July
28, 1852, with large loss of life, off Tarrytown, and other accidents. In
the early days of steamboating, landings were made by small boats
attached to long tow-lines, there being few docks. This took much time,,
was laborious and often dangerous.

SPEED OF OLD STEAMBOATS.

It is a remarkable fact that during the last fifty years so little progress
should have been made toward increasing the speed of river steamboats.
In view of the marvelous advance in nearly every other branch of mech-
anism, and especially in motor appliances upon land, including railways and
motor cars of every description, little or no improvement has been made
in the propulsion of vessels through the water. In 1841 the old “South
America” ran from Albany to New York in 7 hours and 28 minutes,
making 7 landings. In 1849 the “Alida” made 12 landings and covered

The Hasbrouck House.

KINGSTON.

221

the distance in 7 hours 45 minutes. In 1852 the “Francis Skiddy” made
it in 7 hours 24 minutes with 6 landings. And in 1864 the “'Daniel Drew”
did the trick, with 9 landings in 6 hours 51 minutes. To-day the schedule
time of the largest river steamboat in the world the “Flendrick Hudson”
fresh from the modern marine ways, is 9 hours and 30 minutes, with 9
landings.

Of course, the enormous increase of traffic, which takes much more
time at the landings, must be considered; also the unfairness of a com-
parison between record runs and schedule time. But allowing for all this,
there is still a wide margin for the old-timers. Captain A. L. Anderson
said nearly 25 years ago, “My experience teaches me, steamboats will not
go much, if any faster, than they do as long as they are so heavily
weighted with top-hamper. It is difficult to see how marine engines can
be built better than they are now. If we increase the power, we must
increase the weight of the engine ; and to do that is to load the boat more
heavily.” Does it not seem that the famous old boatman was prophetic?

THE DELAWARE AND HUDSON CANAL.

A most important factor in the prosperity of Kingston was the construc-
tion of the Delaware and Hudson Canal, from Rondout to Honesdale,
Pa. This project was begun in July, 1825, and the Canal was opened for
use in October, 1828. Kingston at once became an important tide-water
coal terminal, being a direct outlet for Pennsylvania coal. The distance
was 107 miles, and there were 107 locks, the summit being 585 feet above
tide. The Company was incorporated in 1823 with a capital of $1,500,000
and the right to use $50,000 in bank until 1844. The total cost of the
canal was $2,037,117. The State loaned the company $800,000 in the
beginning, which was repaid with interest. The capital was afterward
increased and the canal enlarged.

A large increase in trade from the interior resulted, and the growth and
commercial importance of Kingston were greatly enhanced ; especially the
lower end of the town, afterward known as Rondout. In fact, this part
of the town on the creek owed its development almost entirely to the
opening of the Canal and the rapidly increasing river traffic. James S.
McEntee, a well-known resident for many years, and the father of Jervis
McEntee, the artist, was the leading engineer in the construction of this
Canal and the terminal docks at Rondout, and he became one of the

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THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

most prominent and influential citizens. For many years the Canal was
operated by John and Maurice Wurts. Enormous quantities of coal were
brought here and reshipped to market.

In the construction of this Canal large deposits of natural cement rock
were uncovered in the town of Rosendale, and when these quarries were
opened, and the manufacture of cement began, there was a new traffic,
for this end of the canal, and thus another impetus was imparted to the
prosperity of Rondout and Kingston. Seven thousand tons of coal were
brought to tidewater the first season, and six years later the amount had
increased to 500,000 tons. The first boats used were small and carried
only about 28 tons. One horse did the towing, and the round trip took
ten days.

A lithographic sketch of Rondout in 1840 shows 9 storehouses, 42
dwellings and 24 vessels of different kinds in the creek. After 70 years
of successful operation, this Canal was sold and abandoned. It had out-
lived its usefulness and been superseded by railways, which carried the
coal cheaper. This abandonment of the Canal, however, was a sad blow
to Kingston. But the large shipping interest was not wholly dependent
upon this Canal traffic, and the harbor still bristled with masts and belch-
ing smokestacks. The freight and passenger traffic had begun soon after
the opening of the nineteenth century, and increased steadily for over
fifty years. It was then far in excess of any other intermediate point on
the river, and perhaps greater than all other points combined. In addi-
tion to this vast freight business, there had grown up one of the most
extensive steam-towing lines in the United States, known as the Cornell
Steamboat Company. This was originally established by Thomas Cornell,
a citizen of wealth and prominence, and since his death has been con-
trolled and conducted by Samuel D. Coykendall, who is the President and
owner. He is now widely credited with owning more steamboats than any
other person in the United States, having in recent years purchased other
lines on the Hudson. Over 60 steamers are operated and 400 men em-
ployed.

DEVELOPMENT OF KINGSTON AS A RAILWAY CENTER.

In 1865 and 1866 the railway fever struck Kingston. In the latter
year it broke out on two sides of the town, and local capitalists were
induced to start the projects. Both proved costly for the people of Kings-

KINGSTON.

223

ton and the various towns through which the roads ran. But in the end all
have been benefited beyond estimate.

The Rondout and Oswego, was the original title of the company, now
known as the Ulster and Delaware Railroad. The purpose then was to
build to Lake Ontario. It was afterward changed, on the reorganization
of the company, to the New York, Kingston and Syracuse, and finally to
the present title, in June, 1875, when the road came into the ownership
of Thomas Cornell, and it is now in full operation from Kingston Point to
Oneonta, 108 miles, and from Phoenicia to Hunter and Kaaterskill, 22
miles. The track is steel, standard gauge, and the equipment is of the
most approved modern character. It has proved the great developing
factor of the Catskills as a summer resort, and of incalculable value
and importance to the people of Kingston, bringing a vast amount of
trade and produce from the interior mountain region of Ulster and other
counties. It has also added materially to the population of the town, and
has of late become an important outlet for coal. The extensive railway
shops in the lower part of the city are operated by electricity, and furnish
employment to hundreds of men. Samuel D. Coykendall is president of
this railway system, and the road is owned almost entirely by him. It
carried nearly 500,000 passengers last year.

In 1866, the Wallkill Valley Railway was projected from Montgomery,
Orange County to Kingston; first terminating at New Paltz, next at
Rosendale, and finally reaching Kingston. It passed into the hands of
Messrs. Cornell and Coykendall in June, 1877, and afterward became the
property of the New York Central Railway Company, by whom the line
is still operated.

ADVENT OF THE WEST SHORE RAILWAY.

The next railway line to enter the town was the West Shore Trunk
Line. And the completion of this double track road to this city was an
event of the highest importance to Kingston. The first passenger train left
here for New York on the morning of June 25, 1883 ; and during that day
the incoming trains were met by bands of music and the ringing of bells.
A few weeks later the road was opened to Albany and Syracuse.

But there was still another railway project ripening for Kingston.
The fertile valley of the Rondout Creek to Ellenville had only a feeble
stage line, and the old Canal for its transportation facilities. Even before
the abandonment of the Canal, many railway projects were proposed and

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THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

discussed from time to time. Finally in 1902 the Ellenville and Kingston
branch of the Ontario and Western Railway was built and opened for
traffic. The first train left Kingston December 22, 1902.

STAGES AND STREET RAILWAYS.

Early in the last century a stage-line between Albany and New York
on the west bank of the Hudson, and through Kingston, was established.
Three trips a week were made during the winter season, continuing thus
until December 20, 1814, after which four horses were attached to each'
stage and daily trips were made either way, except on Mondays. The
changes were made at Goshen, New Paltz and Catskill. This method
continued until 1820, prior to which the Kingston people had no daily
stage for the Metropolis on the west side of the river, and during the
dose of navigation they had to get their mail by way of Rhinebeck.

In 1866 a horse railway was built from Rondout to Kingston, ter-
minating near the Kingston bridge over the Esopus. Previous to that,
stages were run at frequent intervals between the two ends of the town,
and to Kingston Point, to meet the river steamers. The fare for this two-
mile trip was I2j^ cents, and there was a tollgate midway; there being a
so-called plank-road from which the company sought profit.

STREET HORSE-CARS.

The advent of the horse-car was regarded as an improvement, although
the track, rolling-stock and motive power were crude and inadequate, and
the management seemed to deteriorate as time went on. The enterprise
was unprofitable from start to finish, and everybody connected with it
lost money. The first car was run in August, 1866. It was drawn by
four horses and preceded by a band of music. The fare was ten cents.
Even in 1879 when the road was felicitously known as “Winne’s Rapid
Transit Line,” it took the best part of an hour to make the trip under the
best conditions. The old cars seemed to have little affinity for the small
rails, and they left the track several times most every trip. But, of
course, there were few trains to catch then, and one could always get out
and walk, when the mules gave out.

THE ELECTRIC TROLLEY SYSTEM.

After some 27 years of this method, a new track was built and the
mules gave way to the electric trolley, introduced by the new owner, who.

The Hoffman House.

Southwest bastian of the old fortifications.

KINGSTON.

225

however, encountered much opposition from residents along the line, who
feared the noise. Soon after that an opposition line was built on a some-
what different route, and this resulted in a maze of legal complications.
Finally the first electric car was run July 31, 1893, the fare was
reduced to five cents. One line was known as the Kingston City and
the other the Colonial. They were consolidated in January, 1902, and
for the year ending June 30, 1906, 2,686,244 passengers were carried.
Meanwhile, soon after electric power was adopted, Kingston Point was
purchased by the new owner, Mr. Coykendall, who at once converted the
property into a public park at large expense, erecting many buildings with
modern park amusement features, fashioning lagoons and bridges,
planting a variety of shrubbery, etc. Then the electric cars were taken
there, and the place has now become one of the most attractive public
parks on the Hudson, as well as a favorite summer resort for Kingston
people. It is visited by nearly a million persons annually.

CIVIC DIVISIONS AND CHANGES.

After its incorporation as a village in 1805 and subsequent to 1816,
Kingston continued to grow in progress and importance, keeping pace
with other settlements in the State. In April, 1818, small change be-
coming scarce, nearly three thousand dollars in scrip was issued by which
the village made $690, by unredeemed paper. The care of the old village
clock caused some controversy between the trustees and the directors.
It cost $20 a year, and a new eight-day clock was finally purchased in
1823 for $440. In 1819 the village bakers were required to make their
loaves weigh 47 ounces each and sell them at 12V2 cents. In May, 1830,
grocery licenses were granted at $6 each to Sharpe & Voorhees, Jacob
Burhans, Joseph S. Smith, Jacob K. Trumpbour, Eliphas Van Aken,
Austin DuBois, Lewis Mason, Conrad Crook, Charles DuBois, John
Hume, Hiram Radcliff, William Kerr, Peter Tappen, Jr., J. & J. Russell,
O’Neil & O’Neil, and a few others. Tavern licenses were issued to John
H. Rutzer, Hannah Radcliff, and what is now the Kingston Hotel.

The extension of Fair street was agitated in the fall of that year, but
the plan was not carried out until some years later.

The opening of the Delaware and Hudson Canal in the previous year
served to develop that end of the town rapidly, and there soon arose a
spirit of rivalry between these people and the citizens of the village. This

226

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

feeling increased as the years went by, and finally led to sectional factions
that were difficult to harmonize. The general progress and development
of the town was obstructed to some extent by this lack of unanimity. This
at length culminated in another village on the creek, which had always
been known as ‘'The Strand.’’

INCORPORATION OF RONDOUT.

This was incorporated in May, 1849, under the name of Rondout, after
the old “Ronduit” or “Redoubt,” a fort, established there more than a
century before, although its precise location cannot be determined now.
At the first meeting of the Trustees on May 3, George F. Von Beck was
chosen president, the other directors being Edmund Suydam, Terrence
O’Reiley, William H. Bridger, and Michael Dougherty. Only 287 votes
were cast at the first village election, but this increased to 1,365 at the last
corporate election May 3, 1871. The following Presidents succeeded Von
Beck: Hiram Roosa, 1850; Edmund Suydam, 1851; James G. Lindsley,
1852; George Thompson, 1853; Thomas Keys, 1854-55; Geo. F. Von
Beck, 1856-58; Nathan Anderson, 1859-63; Lorenzo A. Sykes, 1864-66;
James G. Lindsley, 1867-69; John Derrenbacher, 1870-71.

THE CITY OF KINGSTON.

In May, 1872, the villages of Kingston and Rondout were united and
incorporated into the City of Kingston, the charter being dated May 29,
1872. The hamlet of Wilbur, formerly Twaalfskill, which had long been
a bluestone shipping point, was now included. The first joint election
took place April 16, 1872; 3,271 votes being cast for mayor. James G.
Lindsley was the first citizen to be thus honored, and he was chosen from
Rondout.

The city was divided into nine wards, each ward being represented in
the Council by two Aldermen. This arrangement continued until the
present year, 1906. The first ward, in the northern part of the city, em-
braced the old Wiltwyck or Stockade of Kingston in Colonial times. This
includes all the County buildings and most of the old stone houses, and
is the historic part of the town.

At that time the large shipping interests and the big cement manufac-
turing plant had built up Rondout until it had some ten thousand inhab-
itants, while Kingston contained somewhat less. Thus it was the Rondout

KINGSTON.

227

people had already sought a city charter from the Legislature the previous
year, and they wanted to call the city “Rondout.” But this fired the more
conservative descendants of the ancient burghers in Kingston with indig-
nation and ardent zeal. They would not listen to any proposition that
would wipe out the historic name of Kingston, and finally the better
counsels prevailed.

The formation of the city left all the old territory of the town of
Kingston outside of the villages, into a town by itself which still retained
the old name. This remnant of the old town nearly encircled the new
city, except on the southeast. Resolving not to be obscured by the im-
portance of the city, it began to make history of its own in vigorous
fashion at once. While yet with the two villages, the old town began to
dominate the politics of the county, and controlled most of the offices ; and
some of the methods employed were of the most corrupt nature, be-
longing to the period of political graft when office holding first became a
profession. Unprincipled bosses were in full control of the civic ma-
chinery of the county. A political ring had the taxpayers by the throat.
The town elections were a farce and often attended by tragic features.
When the city was organized, most of this ring-rule was transferred to
the town, and there, under the fostering care of the old leaders, it flour-
ished and grew more powerful and corrupt than ever, arousing the atten-
tion of the press all over the State, in denunciation and rebuke. The
better citizens went to the polls and voted against the ring, almost in peril
of their lives at times. But few of their votes were counted, and the
returns were canvassed by ringleaders in a certain city livery-stable for a
time. Matters finally culminated at the spring election of 1879, which
was held just over the Kingston bridge in the classic precinct known as
‘‘Mutton Hollow.” There was a riot, and many were assaulted, one man
being nearly killed. This was the end, however. There was a prompt
investigation by the Legislature, and the active leaders were brought to
justice by a fearless District Attorney.

THE TOWN OF ULSTER.

Then in December 1879 the town remnant was again divided, a small
part on the northwest being annexed to the town of Woodstock, and the
larger portion, north of the Esopus creek, and between this stream and
the Hudson, together with another small area on the southwest, being
carved into a new town called “Ulster.” This left the old town of Kings-

228

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

ton with little beside the name. It was rough, rocky and unproductive,
although having large deposits of bluestone. Its few remaining taxpayers
were now too poor to interest politicians.

The new municipality began its career under better auspices than had
prevailed in the old town. A spirit of economy and thrift succeeded,
although the construction of the City Hall was soon projected, and the
authorities insisted that it should be a structure of which the city might
be proud for many years to come. There was much opposition to the
erection of so large a building in advance of its need, because of the heavy
cost. But the imposing structure was completed substantially as it now
appears in 1875, upon a most commanding site in the center of the city,
and there are to-day few who regret the outlay. All the various muni-
cipal offices are centered there and various public bodies hold frequent
meetings in the building. It cost about $75,000, and some $20,000 more
were spent in repairs and improvements upon it in 1896. For the first
few years rooms were occupied by the Supreme Court there, in which the
noted legal contest between the New York Elevated Railway Companies,
in their early history, was heard by Justice T. R. Westbrook, in the fall of
1881.

A large city almshouse was erected in 1874, at a cost of $31,500. This
is managed by a Board of Commissioners, seven in number, appointed by
the Mayor. The last report shows that it cost $22,530.44 to maintain the
city poor there in 1905.

In 1879 the State was induced to build a large Armory on Broadway,
which was completed in the fall of 1880 at a cost of over $25,000. This
has just been remodeled and improved this year at a large additional cost,
and is now occupied by Company M, ist Regiment, N. Y. N. G.

The telegraph was first brought to Kingston about 1852, and the first
operator here was Jacob DuBois. The principal business for this new
method of communication being at that time in Rondout. The people there
made an effort to get another office more convenient for them, and for a
time a loop was run there, as the line came down from Albany, But this
company soon failed, and then some time afterward another company
established an office with Winter Brothers in Rondout, who managed
telegraphic affairs there for some years before coming to Kingston with
an office.

The telephone was introduced in 1880, although a small local private

The Houghtaling House.

KINGSTON.

229

line had been in operation for some months before. There are now two-
companies, the Hudson River, and the Citizens’ Standard, in full opera-
tion in the city, connecting with all distant points, having some 2,600
separate telephones. Many of these wires have been placed in modern
underground conduits this year, and both companies have just completed
large and costly exchange buildings fitted with every latest appliance.

THE KINGSTON WATER SUPPLY.

The water supply of Kingston is gathered and stored among the Cats-
kills, near the base of Overlook Mountain, and is of the purest quality.
It is led to the city by gravitation in a double line of main pipe about
seventeen miles long, one being 18 and the other 20 inches in diameter.

For the first twelve years the city had no public water supply. Wells
and cisterns were relied upon, as had been the case for over a century.
There were a few fire-cisterns in the streets. The water-works system
was introduced by a local company in 1884, and this plant was acquired
by the city in March, 1896. It was then greatly enlarged and improved in
every way, the city being bonded for $750,000 altogether. The new plant
was completed in September, 1900. There are now forty-seven and one-
half miles of street mains, and there is a storage supply of 305,000,000
gallons in three reservoirs. The mechanical filtration plant has a capacity
of over 6,000,000 gallons daily, and the present average daily consump-
tion of water is 5,000,000 gallons. It is delivered at a pressure of from
100 to 120 pounds to the square inch. The total cost of the water plant
to date is not far from a million dollars.

Gas was first introduced in Kingston in 1854 by a local company, at
Rondout. It is now supplied by the Kingston Gas and Electric Com-
pany, which has thirty-seven and one-half miles of street mains and
about 200 miles of conducting wire. The average daily consumption o£
gas for lighting and fuel is about 160,000 cubic feet, and the electric
energy supplied per month aggregates 63,215 kilowatt hours, or about
84,739 horse-power. Of this amount 22,677 kilowatt hours are used for
commercial lighting, 33,040 kilowatt hours for public lamps, and 7,498^
kilowatt hours for power purposes.

The city Police Department was established in May, 1891, and the
original force, consisting of nineteen, two from each ward and the chief,
has not been increased, although a Board of Police Commissioners of

230

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

five members, with the Mayor as president, has been created. Stephen
D. Hood has been the Chief of Police from the first.

Various amendments to the original city charter have been made from
time to time, the most important of which was that passed by the last
Legislature, providing for a redivision into thirteen wards, under which
the municipality is now operating.

The Street Department is under the nominal control of the Street Super-
intendent, who is appointed by the Mayor. In 1873, $17,220 were spent
upon the streets and roads of the city, $6,080 of this amount being for
permanent improvements. During the past nine years this department
cost $288,133.13. The year ending Nov. 30, 1905, the cost was $46,635.82.
There are about seventy-two miles of streets, twenty-eight of which are
macadam roadways, and about one mile of brick and asphalt pavement.
The main thoroughfare, now known as Broadway, was formerly “Union
Avenue.”

The Health Department was organized in 1883, and consists of six
commissioners presided over by the Mayor, with a Health Officer and a
Sanitary Inspector. During the administration of Mayor Block, two
women commissioners were appointed, but they have been succeeded by
men.

The Fire Department is still a volunteer force, with fourteen hose, hook
and ladder and truck companies, the present Chief being Rodney A.
Chipp. There is also an electric fire alarm system, and the fire-fighting
force and appliances are prompt and efficient.

There is a Plumbing Board with four members ; four local Civil Service
Commissioners, and six social clubs. The leading men’s clubs being
known as the Kingston and Rondout Clubs. Each of these have well
equipped and finely furnished suites of rooms and large memberships.
The Kingston Opera House and the Rondout Opera House are the only
amusement halls of note, and these are supplied with dramatic enter-
tainments most of the time during the season. There are some fourteen
smaller assembly halls of various kinds.

Various musical societies have been organized, but most of them went
down after a short career. The most important of these was the “Kings-
ton Philharmonic Society,” which had a most successful and artistic
career lasting several years. It was organized in 1888 with Samuel D.
Coykendall as president and financial sponsor. It was mainly devoted to

KINGSTON.

231

the study of choral music of the better class, and some of the best con-
ductors in the country were engaged. The active membership embraced
all the leading vocal talent of the city, and the associate list included most
of the prominent families. Some of the most celebrated vocalists and
instrumentalists of the land, and large orchestras, were engaged for the
concerts at large expense, and these concerts were notable affairs both in
musical and society circles. But in 1895 the society suspended for lack
of support. To-day the only musical society in the city is the Rondout
Mannerchor, a German social and singing club of many years standing,
save the Mendelssohn Club, a double male quartet, and the Kingston
Band, under Geo. Muller.

There is a large Public Library, nearly opposite the City Hall, built in
1904, at a cost of $30,000, which was donated by Andrew Carnegie on
condition that the city obligate itself to raise ten per cent, of this amount
annually for the support of the library. This has been done, and there
are now 4,930 volumes upon the shelves. These books are in active de-
mand by all classes, and the library is much appreciated. The building
is a fine structure of the most solid and substantial character, of which
the city is justly proud. The Library Association was formed in June,
1899, and until the completion of the new building, a room in the City
Hall was used.

One of the finest modern jails in the country was erected by Ulster
County, in the rear of the Court House, in 1902, at a cost of over $75,000.
The walls are of huge native limestone blocks, rock-finished ; and the
interior is of chilled steel, fitted with every modern sanitary appliance and
convenience.

A large addition to the Court House, in the rear, was also built a few
years previous. In this are the court room, supervisors’ rooms and vari-
ous public offices, which are handsomely fitted.

There are twenty-nine different fraternal society organizations in the
city, representing some fifty-six branches or divisions, which hold regular
meetings. Some of these lodge rooms, including the Masonic Lodges of
Kingston and Rondout, and the Pythian Hall, are large and handsomely
fitted.

KINGSTON BOARD OF TRADE.

This association of business men was established in 1886, Reuben
Bernard being its first president. The organization has directed its
attention more especially to the introduction of new manufacturing indus-

232

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

tries in the city, and in that way to build up the general business pros-
perity of the place and increase the population. These efforts brought
some good results. In 1902 the board published an illustrated brochure
which gave the first comprehensive summary of the attractions and advan-
tages of Kingston ever issued. Complete statistics of all the manufacturing
industries were presented for the hrst time. From this it appears that
over $3,500,000 were then invested in the city industries, which produced
an annual output valued at over $5,000,000. Four thousand eight hundred
and seventy persons of both sexes were employed in this work, earning
a weekly wage of over $37,000. Over thirty separate industries were
enumerated, and some fifty different plants. The largest was the Ameri-
can Cigar Company, which started here in 1886. It is one of the largest
cigar factories in the United States, employing some 1,800 persons, and
turning out an annual product valued at nearly two million dollars,
making 250,000 cigars a day. The Peckham Manufacturing Co., with a
capital of $500,000 and a force of 250 men, made car-trucks and steam
snow plows valued at over half a million dollars in 1901. This plant has
now passed into other hands and is devoted to other interests. Over
$250,000 is invested in the manufacture of builders’ woodwork, with an
annual output of over $300,000. Engines, boilers and machinery are
made in a complete modern electric plant, to the value of $125,000 a year,
employing nearly 300 men. One hundred thousand dollars worth of
shirts are made by some 300 operators. Tinfoil and bottle caps, $125,000;
ribbed underwear, $100,000; household furniture, $100,000; lager beer,
$200,000; brushes, $100,000. And there are many smaller industries
which cannot well be enumerated in detail here.

The United States Lace Curtain Mills operates a most extensive and
interesting plant near the center of the city, which was started in 1903
by a New York com^pany. The building cost nearly $100,000, and the
machinery not far from $200,000. There are nine Jacquard looms, and
some four tons of cotton thread are used weekly in about 35,000 yards ot
lace. Only lace curtains are made, and some 125 persons are employed.
The power is wholly electric.

Ship building is carried on in different boat yards along the creek,
especially the building of large brick barges, smiall steam crafts, and
general repairing, to an amount of nearly $100,000 annually, some fiftv
men being thus engaged.

The Old Academy.

KINGSTON.

233

THE CEMENT INDUSTRY.

The making of Rosen dale cem.ent began in Kingston in 1851, by the
Newark Lime and Cement Company, with a large plant at Rondout
although the native rock had been quarried there for seven years before,
and shipped to the company’s mills in Newark, N. J. This brand of
cement was afterwards used extensively in all important masonry, includ-
ing the Croton aqueduct and all important government work. Some 1,200
barrels a day were turned out at these mills for several years, and a large
force was employed. This factory was an important factor in the early
development of Rondout. James G. Lindsley was in charge of the works
here, and being a man of great force of character, he became influential in
public affairs. This extensive plant has lain idle, however, for the past
two years because of the decline in the use of natural cement, which has
been largely supplanted by Portland cem.ent, an artificial product. This
company made over 245,584 barrels of this cement in 1886, when the total
output in Ulster County was over 2,000,000 barrels. In 1887 this countv
product swelled to 2,300,000 barrels ; and between 1856 and 1892 this
annual county product increased from 510,000 to 2,833,107 barrels. The
demand began to fall off in 1900, and now, with the rapid increase of
concrete, the price has again risen.

The manufacture and shipping of bluestone is also an important Kings-
ton industry, which, however, is treated at length on other pages of this
work.

THE BRICK INDUSTRY.

Brick-making is a large and important industry on the city river front,
in which nearly 1,000 men and boys are engaged at good wages during
the season of navigation. Over $500,000 are invested in this business
within the city limits, and the value of the annual output from these yards
doubtless exceeds this amount; the price of brick for the past two years
having been unusually high and the demand large. The clay of this
section is found to be of the best quality for the production of a standard
article. The sand is brought from other points along the river. These
various yards in the city produced over fifty million bricks in 1895, and
the present output is nearly seventy-five millions. This is about one-
thirteenth of the total product in the United States in 1889.

The labor industry in the city has four trade organizations and some
twenty-seven labor unions, which hold meetings at stated periods.

234

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

There are eight public cemeteries, Wiltwyck, Montrepose and St
Mary’s being the largest. The former was established near the center of
the city in July, 1850, and has been greatly enlarged and improved from
time to time. Montrepose is in the Rondout section, and this has also been
made most attractive in recent years.

POSTAL FACILITIES OF KINGSTON.

The history and development of postal affairs in any town is perhaps a
fair general record of its progress. The marvelous growth and increase
of the business of the Kingston post-office is shown by the comparative
summary here presented. The office must have been established prior to
the Revolution, but there is no authentic record of local postal affairs
until some timie after the formation of the Republic. On August 17, 1793,
the following official postal notice appeared in the Farmers' Register, a
Kingston newspaper of that period : “Those gentlemen who wish to have
their letters forwarded by Post, are re<^uested to send them to the Post
Office at Kingston on Wednesday evening.” Even as late as 1815, the
list of uncalled for letters in the Kingston office included names of resi-
dents in the different towns in the county, indicating that it was then the
only post-office in the county.

Postal facilities were of course crude and meager in those days. A
newspaper known as the Ulster Plebeian, published in 1815, had great
difficulty in delivering the paper to its subscribers in the outlying districts.
For a time a special post-rider was employed, and it cost the publishers
over a dollar a year for each subscriber, which was more than half the
price of the subscription. Finally in 1817, a post route was established
between Kingston and Milford, Pa., and on the 13th of November the
first United States mail carrier left Kingston on horseback, making one
trip a week. If comparison could be made of the receipts of the old
Kingston post-office in those days with those of the present, it would be
interesting; but unfortunately that old data has not been preserved, and
the reader must be left to form his own estimate. In 1902 the receipts ag-
gregated about $45,000, and nearly $200,000 in money orders, with 41,000
pieces of registered mail were handled. For the year 1905 this aggregate
Avas increased to $50,560, and the money order business amounted to
$280,878.43; 10,600 special delivery letters were handled; $14,850 in
salaries were paid to the postmaster and his clerks ; and the letter carriers

KINGSTON.

235

and other free delivery incidentals, cost $14,567. The railway postal clerks
and weighers upon the roads terminating here were paid $8,258. The
rent of offices cost $1,600 and the surplus, of nearly $9,000, was turned in
to the Government. Free city delivery began May i, 1895, with eleven
carriers, which has been increased to sixteen. Kingston became a first-
class post-office July i, 1901. The main office has been located in the
Kingston Opera House building since 1869.

An appropriation of $110,000 has been made by Congress for a Public
Building. Plans have been drawn for a new post-office, a site secured
and the foundation completed at the junction of Prince street. Pine Grove
avenue and Broadway, $25,000 having been thus expended. It is now said
that the contracts for the superstructure will be given out early in 1907.

The Rondout post-office was established some time prior to 1830 and
continued there until 1895, since which time it has been maintained as a
station of the Kingston office. The Wilbur post-office, established about
1856, was also abolished in 1895. The following is a list of the Kingston
postmasters and their terms of office, beginning with the existing records :
Conradt Elmendorf, early in the century, succeeded after some years by
William Cockburn, Jacob K. Trumpbour, 1829-39; Benjamin M. Has-
brouck, 1839-41; William Gulley, 1841-45; Isaac Van Buren, 1845-48;
Daniel Young, 1848-49; William H. Romeyn, 1849-53; William Kerr,
1853-61 ; Caleb S. Clay, 1861-69; Joseph S. Smith, 1869-73; Daniel Brad-
bury, 1873-82; William M. Hayes, 1882-86; W. S. Gillespie, 1886-90;
Noah Woiven, 1890-94; H. G. Crouch, 1894-98; Geo. M. Brink, 1898-
1902; Walter C. Dolson, 1902 to the present time.

The list of Rondout postmasters is as follows: Edmund Suydam,
William Sims, John Hudler, John H. Stratton, Rensselaer Acley, William
Winter, 1871-77; Andrew N. Barnes, 1877-84; Richard Mooney, 1884-98;
David Gill, 1888-92 ; Henry Beck, 1892-95.

Wilbur postmasters : Thomas Booth, Henry H. Pitts, Michael A. Rush,
Daniel Zoller.

The Young Men’s Christian Association was organized in September,
1876, with thirty charter members. Andrew E. Schepmoes was the first
president. A fine new building was erected at a cost of $46,000 in 1896.
It includes a large public hall, a well fitted gymnasium, reading-room,
parlors and other convenient rooms, and there is now a total membership
of 500.

236

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

The Industrial Home, corner of Chester street and Highland avenue^
for orphan and indigent children, was organized in 1876. It has been
successfully managed by charitable ladies of the city. Over 700 needy
children have been placed in good homes, and many others temporarily
cared for. The present new building was built in 1903, at a cost of
$17,000. Mrs. Mary I. Forsyth is now the president.

The Kingston City Hospital is a commodious and useful structure
located near the City Hall. The association was formed in the spring of
1890, with John E. Kraft as president. Three years later the new building
was erected by subscriptions, donations, and various public charitable
entertainments ; and to-day the hospital is one of the most beneficent and
useful institutions in the city. The original cost of the building, site and
fixtures, which are most complete in surgical appliances, was about
$15,000. About five years ago Mr. Samuel D. Coykendall spent about
$10,000 in repairs and improvements, and he is now building a new
nurse’s hall, which will cost some $10,000 more, making the present
value of the plant about $35,000. The association, of which Rev. Dr.
R. L. Burtsel is president, has now the following endowments: John
Wesley Shaw, $5,000; Ira Davenport, $5,000; Katharine S, Davenport,
$500; Rev- John B. Gleason, $500; Henrietta Wynkoop, $400; Margaret
E. Hess, $500. The hospital receives an annual appropriation from the
city of $4,500, and $2,000 from the county.

There are two sanitariums in the city. The Sahler Sanitarium was
established about seven years ago on lower Wall street and was greatly
enlarged this year. The total cost of the building to this date is not far
from $50,000. The Benedictine Sanitarium, which partakes more of the
character of a public hospital, is a most imposing brick structure standing
upon a sightly blufi: overlooking the city, west of Broadway, opposite
the City Hall. It was erected a few years ago and cost about $50,000.
Both these institutions are doing good work.

The Wiltwyck Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution
was organized here in October, 1892, with fourteen charter members,,
Mrs. De Witt Roosa is the present Regent, and there are 150 members.

RANDOM NOTES.

The first doctor in Kingston, then known as Wiltwyck, was Gysbert
Van Imborch, whom Governor Stuyvesant induced to settle here in 1662.
Prior to that time the people trusted to the skill of the Reader, comforter

The Tappen House.

KINGSTON.

237

of the sick, and Chorister, Van der Sluys, the Indian medicine men, and
to Mrs. Slecht, a midwife.

The first Government Light House at the mouth of Rondout Creek was
huilt in 1837 by James S. McEntee. This structure was carried away
by a freshet two years later and rebuilt. Mrs. Murdock has kept this
light for nearly fifty years, since 1858.

At the opening of the eighteenth century, Kingston had less than 100
houses. Until 1822 there was only one piano in the place. Then another
was brought in by a French lady. At that time the post-office was located
on the corner of North Front and Fair streets. In 1798 the post-office
seems to have been in an upper room on Green street.

The first brickyard was operated near the present site of the Kingston
Bridge, where brick were made for home use.

The Eagle Hotel was built in the spring of 1835 by Thomas Clark.
The house was burned in 1876, and rebuilt by B. J. Winne in 1877, who
ran the hotel for some years, since which it has remained under the
present Winne management. The old Ulster County House was among
the earlier hotels in Kingston, and stood on Wall street, opposite the old
Dutch Church. Solomon Brown, a famous hotel man of that period,
kept this house from 1835 to 1847, bought the present Kingston Hotel
in 1853. The Schryver Hotel, at the head of Main street on Clinton
avenue, was a prominent house long known as the “Temperance House.”

The Mansion House in Rondout was opened in 1832 by James S. Mc-
Entee, and was the only hotel there for many years. The Kingston Hotel
is probably the oldest in the city; part of the present structure v/ent
through the fire in 1777, as the charred beams show.

The first school house in Rondout was built upon a ledge of rocks at
the foot of Wurts street in 1832, at a cost of $500.

A story is told of one of Molly Elmendorf’s colored female servants
who fled with her mistress to Hurley on the approach of the British.
When told of the destruction of the Elmendorf mansion in the great fire,
the old negress stoutly contradicted it, insisting that it could not be so,
because she had the key of the house in her pocket.

In 1822 Fair street was known as “The Doverstraucha,” and it ex-
tended only from North Front to John street. Wall street then ended at
John street from the south, and did not extend to North Front as row.

James S. McEntee built what is known as the “Island Dock” in the

238

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

upper creek, in 1846. He also built the old plank-road between Rondout,
Wilbur and Kingston, which was found so difficult to get rid of after
the city charter was obtained.

The name ‘‘Wiltwyck,” which is now applied to a small region of
Kingston east of Broadway, near the center of the city, was of course
the old name for the stockaded part of Kingston in 1663. “Higginsville’'
was formerly applied to the lower end of North Front street near the
Bogardus Mill of 1800, the Bridge, and the original Kingston Depot of
the Ulster & Delaware Railway. The old tannery there, and the many
stone teams from the Flagstone quarries made it a busy spot in former
years.

Ponckhockie, an Indian name, was an early appellation applied to the
northern part of Rondout, toward Kingston Point. It was somewhere in
this section that the old Dutch fort is believed to have been built al-
though the exact site of that historic redoubt cannot now be determined.

Rondout was visited by the cholera epidemL in 1832, and again in 1849.
The first did not prove serious, but the last was fearful in loss of life, and
was followed by great depression of business. The White Storehouse on
the dock was turned into a hospital. It came again in 1852, but this visit
had a beneficial effect on the health and cleanliness of the community.
The streets and yards were cleaned up as never before. The yellow fever
also broke out there in 1844, having been brought from the West Indies in
a cargo of pineapples.

The Kingston and Rhinebeck ferry across the Hudson is operating
under a very old franchise granted by Queen Anne. Originally the boat
was run from Columbus Point, on this side, and was propelled by horse-
power for a long series of years. About 1815, or thereabouts, steam
power was introduced into the “Rhine,” which is thought to have been
the name of the ferryboat at that time. Then in 1852, after the opening
of the railway, the ferry was brought into the Creek, where it has since
remained. The old “Rhine” was succeeded by the “Lark,” which in turn
was followed by the “Transport,” still in use.

The first local baggage express in Kingston was started by Winter
Brothers in 1866, and has been operated by them ever since, although
there are now many rival companies in the business.

No effort seems to have been made toward grading or regulating the
Rondout streets until 1859. A stream of water was constantly pouring
down Division street hill (now Broadway) from a spring at about the

The Wynkoop House.

KINGSTON.

239

present junction of Spring street. During the heavy rains this water
would carry tons of sand down the steep hill to the Creek, often leaving
thick deposits upon the store floors near Ferry street. About that time,
however, this enthusiastic spring was taken in hand by a new board of
trustees, and the water was deflected elsewhere. Then the grading of
streets began. Ferry street receiving the first attack, closely followed by
Hunter, Wurts, Hasbrouck avenue. Meadow and Abruyn streets. And all
this was done without any expense for engineers.

The Twaalfskill Club has a fine golf course on Andrews street, near
the center of the city, where a handsome and convenient club house has
been erected. The membership includes many of the more prominent
citizens of Kingston. Judge A. T. Clearwater is now the president.

A curfew law was adopted in Kingston in April, 1906, requiring all
persons under sixteen years of age to be off the streets after 9 p. m. in
summer, and 8 in the fall and winter. But so far there is no record of any
attempt to enforce the ordinance, which would probably be somewhat
difficult in view of its vague provisions.

FIRST STATE CENTENNIAL OBSERVATION AT KINGSTON.

The one hundredth anniversary of the inauguration of the State
government at Kingston, was most appropriately commemorated July
30, 1877. It was a memorable event worthy of the occasion. The
city was most elaborately decorated in every part, scarcely a house being
omitted. The day fell on Monday, and it was very hot and threatening.
But the town had been filling up with people all day Saturday and Sunday
from all parts of the State. Guns boomed and bells were rung at mid-
night, both up and down town. Early in the morning the city became
packed with people. At noon the great military procession, under Major
General James W. Husted, the Grand Marshal, and his staff, formed on
the Strand and moved up Union avenue toward Kingston, branching off
toward the westerly side opposite the City Hall to the place prepared as
the ‘'Centennial Grounds,” where the public exercises were held. Justice
T. R. Westbrook delivered the address of welcome, and was followed by
other formal addresses by Chauncey M. Depew, Gen. George H. Sharpe
and others. These may be found in full in the “Centennial Volume,”'
issued by the State in 1879. There were brilliant fireworks in the
evening.

240

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

KINGSTON IN THE REBELLION.

While it is somewhat difficult to separate the town of Kingston from
the balance of the county, in speaking of the services of her citizens in
the Southern Rebellion, something should be said concerning the attitude
of the people here during that conflict, and what they did.

It must be admitted that even in the face of the glorious record of
patriotic valor which had been achieved by many of their ancestors in
past centuries, these people now were not all in favor of this civil war to
preserve the Union. Some were not even sure it was worth saving. Even
some of the most prominent citizens, lawyers, politicians and business men
were openly opposed to the plan of coercion adopted by the administra-
tion, and they labored against it. But happily, they were in the minority.
It would be unkind to mention any of these names now in this connection.
The term “copperhead,” by which they were known, sounds harsh and
uncharitable now. Many were doubtless sincere and honest in their
opinions at that time, although it is safe to say nearly all of them lived
long enough to see their mistake.

However, some of the best fighting regiments in the war went out
from Kingston, and they made a record in the service of their country
second to none in the entire Union army. The first rebel gun that
belched forth on Fort Sumter brought a big mass meeting in the old
Court House, at which John B. Steele presided. Patriotic speeches were
made and measures were adopted to enlist men for the war. At the hrst
call of President Lincoln for volunteers the old 20th Regiment, State
Militia, the “Ulster Guards,” under Col. Pratt, promptly responded, leav-
ing Rondout April 28, 1861, 815 strong, for three months. Company B,
Captain George H. Sharpe; Company C, Captain Tappen; Company F,
Captain Flynn ; Company G, Captain Hendricks, and Company H. Captain
Derrenbacher, were composed mainly of Kingston men. The boys re-
enlisted for three years, “or the war,” and returned to the front for busi-
ness of the most serious importance, Oct. 25, with 987 men. They were
kept in the thickest of the fight and lost very heavily.

The 1 20th Regiment of Volunteers was then quickly organized by
General George H. Sharpe, who was its Colonel, and mustered in Aug. 22,
1862. This included some of the best men of Kingston. The regiment
was promptly ordered to the front, with little chance for drill, and after
participating in many other important battles, finally covered itself with

The Van Steenburgh House.

KINGSTON.

241

glory at Gettysburg, losing 218 officers and men. The fine monument in
the old Dutch Churchyard was erected by Gen. Sharpe some years ago,
“to the undying renown of the rank and file’^ of that famous regiment,
which has since been known as one of the “300 fighting regiments of the
war.’’

The 156th Regiment of Volunteers was also organized in Kingston by
Col. Erastus E. Cooke, and mustered in the service Nov. 17, 1862, doing
valiant service on many a bloody field at great sacrifice of life.

General Sharpe became a member of Gen. Grant’s staff, and had the
honor of signing the paroles of Lee’s shattered army at Appomattox ; and
other military officers from Kingston won much distinction.

THE HONORABLE CITIZENSHIP OF OLD KINGSTON.

The following graceful tribute to the memory of the ancient dwellers
of Kingston, paid by General Sharpe in a most interesting and compre-
hensive address on the old homesteads of Kingston, delivered Dec. 20,
1875, seems a fitting paragraph with which to close this paper.

He said in his opening: “The old citizens inhabiting all these home-
steads, were a prudent, economical, and frugal people, of strong religious
principles, simple and unostentatious in their lives. They were farmers
to a greater of less degree, each man having a portion of the lowlands, or
the fields on the Arm Bouwery. By the side of every residence was a
barn directly upon the street, and, as every householder kept cows, these
were seen issuing forth in large numbers to the meadows in the morning,
and their returning bells made the evening hour melodious. Beside the
smaller shops or stores, many citizens were engaged in trade, purchasing
cereals and other large products from the surrounding country and for-
warding them in bulk to New York with the yield of their own broad
acres.”

242

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

CHAPTER XVI.

TOWN OF DENNING.

By Charles E. Foote.

HE town of Denning was formed from Shandaken by a division of

the territory of the latter on March 6, 1849. Ten years afterward.

the town of Hardenbergh was taken off, which left the boun-
daries about as follows: On the northeast by the town of Shandaken,
on the southeast by the towns of Olive and Rochester, on the southwest
by the town of Wawarsing and Sullivan County, and on the northeast by
the town of Hardenbergh. It contains 64,050 acres of land.

What has been called a spur of the Catskill mountain range extends
across the town from northeast to southwest, to an elevation of
from 1,500 to 2,000 feet. Other authorities consider that it is no part
of the true mountain range, but is more properly the “foothill” region,
such as is found adjacent to the lower elevations of nearly every mountain
system. Whichever it be, it is remarkably picturesque, with narrow
valleys extending between high and steep hills in every conceivable direc-
tion, hills so steep at times as to be inaccessible, and in other rare in-
stances sloping upward in gradually elevating contour until the verdure-
clad top is reached.

Within the town of Denning is found the true watershed between the
waters of the Hudson and those of the Delaware rivers. The Rondout
Creek is in the eastern part, with its east and west branches, and the
Neversink in the western portion with similar branches, and numerous
brooks and rivulets almost interlacing, form in most absolute perfection
the ideal watershed of two great systems. The Rondout Creek, its
branches joining just inside the county line, flows southwesterly some
miles into Sullivan County, as though bound to reach the Delaware.
Suddenly turning to the southeast it flows across the town of Wawarsing
until it reaches the foothills of the Shawangunk mountains, then with
another abrupt turn to the left it flows northeasterly to the Hudson at
Kingston; the Neversink, only a short distance to the west, joins its
branches just outside the county, and, taking a southerly course, reaches
the Delaware at Port Jervis.

TOWN OF DENNING.

243

Pn the northern part of the town, between the two branches of the
Neversink, is the State Deer Park, a large tract of land the title to which
has been reassumed by the State. It abounds in trout streams, which
unlike other sections of the town, can be fished by all. Where the heads
of the Neversink and Rondout Creeks are in the closest proximity, in the
north part of the town, are the Hanover mountain. Lone mountain. Table
mountain, 3,865 feet, and Mt. Peak o’Moose, 3,875 feet above tide, which
are among the highest peaks in the town.

In the earlier years there were vast forests of hemlock on the sides
and summits of the hills, which gave rise to the extensive saw-mill and
tanning industries. With the exhaustion of the bark the tanneries have
mostly closed or moved elsewhere, while the few saw-mills (five of them)
still in operation, are using up the odds and ends of timber, or are getting
out some special cuts from the second growth hardwood which abounds
profusely.

In the summer the town of Denning is a paradise for those who love
the wilds of Nature. There is plenty of small game in the hills and plenty
of fish in the streams. There is not a railroad within the town limits ; but
there are numerous places where the world-weary pilgrim can get accom-
modations and live, during the heated season, close to nature, with all
the really necessary accompaniments of civilization ; or he may pitch his
tent in a gully between the hills, and make himself as comfortable or un-
comfortable as his tastes and means will permit.

There are many clubs of various kinds who own many miles of trout
streams, which are held for the exclusive use of their members. These
usually have a rustic club-house where their families and themselves
may find shelter in bad weather. None of them, so far as the information
at hand has demonstrated, are given to elaboration, though some very
wealthy men are said to be among the members.

The town was named in honor of William H. Denning, who formerly
owned a large portion of the land in the town. The earliest settlement,
so far as known, was at Dewittville, about 1827, when a saw-mill was
built there by Dewitt & Reynolds. It has been found that the settlements
were usually made on the nearest arable land to the mills and tanneries,
that the products of the soil should be grown on the spot. With the
removal of the industries the farmers found other markets, and Denning,
in its moderate way, remained prosperous and hardy.

244

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

Of the 64,000 and odd acres of land in the town, it is doubtful if more
than ten per cent, is cultivated. It is possible, of course, that the steep
side-hills may be put to use and made profitable, but it would hardly be
in the raising of general farm products or in dairying. Goats or certain
breeds of sheep might be grown to advantage, and there is a theory that
for grape culture those side-hills cannot be excelled.

The settlements are all along the creek valleys. Anthony Schwab is
said to have been the first settler. He located on Read Hill in 1841.
John W. Smith, who had previously built a saw-mill, erected a tannery in
1849. Other early settlers were :

Hiram Depew,

Conrad Bevier,

Cornelius Drew,

Harvey W. Hoyt,
Michael Schwab,

John Scott,

Ezra S. Bliss,

Bradford D. Donaldson,
Abram Van Buskirk,
Herman Depew,

John DeWitt,

Abraham DeWitt,

James Johnson,

Albert Van Dover,
Nathan Kogone,
Joseph B. Anderson,
Charles Rhodes,
Jacob Rosekraus,
John W, Smith,
Cornelius Bevier,
Peter T. Bush,
Nathan Sheely,
Henry J. Whipple,
James Evans,

Baily Beers.

There are two churches in the town, one is a Methodist Episcopal,
located in the Sundown valley, along the Rondout Creek. Services were
begun there in 1856, and a church building costing $2,000 was erected
in 1868. The first pastor was Rev. F. N, Andrews. The society was
formally incorporated in 1878.

There being no railroad in the town, its sources of communication are
by way of Clary ville, just over the line in Sullivan County, at the junc-
tion of the two branches of the Neversink Creek; also by way of Big
Indian, an LTlster & Delaware railway station in the town of Shandaken,
a few miles to the north, and through the towns of Rochester and Wawar-
sing to what was formerly the Delaware and Hudson canal, now the
Ellenville & Kingston Railway.

The productions of the town are ample for the support of the popula-
tion. There is considerable poultry raised, and the making of maple
sugar and syrup is given much attention in the early spring.

There were seventy-four men enlisted for the service in the Civil War
from the town of Denning. They were in different regiments, but prob-

Conrad Hiltebrant.

TOWN OF DENNING.

245

ably a larger number were members of Co. E of the 120th, than of any
other single organization.

There are ten schools in the town, located at the most accessible points
along the valleys. Three of these are on the east branch of the Never-
sink Creek, one just inside the town line above Clary ville, another just
above Dewittville, and the third a short distance below the little hamlet
of Denning near the center of the town. Another is in the Sundown
valley and another at Red Hill. The others are scattered.

The civil organization of Denning was established at a town meeting
held at the Red Hill school house, April 6, 1849, which were elected
the following officers for the newly created town :

Supervisor — Abraham DeWitt.

Town Clerk — John DeWitt.

Justices of the Peace — Flerman Depew, Abrm. Vanbuskirk, Bradford
D. Donaldson, Ezra S. Bliss.

Assessors — Jacobus Rosekraus, Harvey W. Hoyt, Cornelius Bevier.

Commissioner of Highways — Peter T. Bush, Nathan 'Sheely, Henry I.
Whipple.

Overseers of the Poor — Abrm. Vanbuskirk, Stephen Peck.

Denning is the central village and post-office, and John W. Smith was
the first postmaster.

Dewittville is in the valley below on the east branch of the Neversink,
near Sullivan County. On the west branch is the most thickly settled
region, known as the Satterlee section, and at the junction of the east
branch and the Rondout Creek is the poetic locality known as “Sundown
Valley.”

Lumbering is the leading industry, although even in this roughest town
in the county the farmer has managed to grow a few crops.

246

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

CHAPTER XVII.

TOWN OF ESOPUS.
By Charles E. Foote.

HE town of Esopus is located on the Hudson, immediately south

of the city of Kingston. It presents peculiar physical features,

having a high, mountainous ridge or backbone extending north
and south through its center, which reaches a height of 1,000 to 1,600
feet in places. From this ridge eastward toward the Hudson the
ground is rolling and undulating ; toward the west it is broken and hilly,
sloping and terracing down to the valley of the Wallkill and Rondout.

The boundaries are: On the north, the city of Kingston; on the east,
the Hudson river; on the south, the towns of Lloyd and New Paltz; and
on the west, the towns of Rosendale and Ulster, from both of which it
is separated by the Wallkill and Rondout. It has an area of 19,898 acres.

The titles to the Esopus lands seem to descend from three old patents :
the Kingston patent to trustees for the benefit of freeholders and inhab-
itants and superseding the Dutch grant, dated May 19, 1664; the New
Paltz patent, made to Louis DuBois, and eleven others, dated May 28,
1677, and the Hurley grant, made by Governor Stuyvesant under the
original Dutch regime, and later confirmed by the English authorities.

There are many records which give the names of most of the original
settlers of what was known as the Kleine Esopus, or Little Esopus, in
contradistinction from the larger tract to the north and west to which
the name of Esopus seemed generic.

On February 13, 1688, the Trustees of Kingston granted to Claes
Westphaelen and Abel Westphaelen a tract of land “lying and being
upon Hudson’s river to the northward of Kalikoon Hook, and so along
said river to the bounds of Capt. John Sprague.”

This description shows that Capt. John Sprague was already there.

Among the land papers on file at Albany, and dated June 12, 1685, is
the “Description of a Survey of 2960 acres of land, lying upon Hudson’s
River, betwixt the Rondout Kill and the Kleine Esopus and known by the
name of Hussey’s Hill, including the Kleine Esopus ffly and sunken ffly

TOWN OF ESOPUS.

247.

at the mouth of Rondout Kili, with the two lakes, laid out for Ffrederick
Hussey and others by Phillip Welles, Surveyor.”

That portion of the original town of Hurley which was on the east
side of the Wallkill, and the east side of the Rondout below the mouth
of the Wallkill, is in the present town of Esopus. The road list for this
section, dated March 28, 1781, gives the following names, which were
probably all the male adults living there at that time:

Johannis Hardenbergh,
Timothy Telsey,

John Winfield,
Benjamin Winfield,
Hendrick Smith,
Jonathan Hutchinson,
Joseph Gee,

Dirck Keyser,

10 days Ephraim Keyser,

3 “ Daniel York,

6 “ Johannis York,

2 “ Jonathan Hardenbergh,

7 Isaac Hardenbergh,

3 ** David Turner,

3 " Jeronemus Burger,

I “ Zacharias Sluyter,

days

In 1724 (March 25) Arien Gerretse acquired title to several
tracts of land in this region. One was “on the southeast side of the
Rondout Creek and both sides of the Paltz Creek (Wallkill), beginning
on the south side of a certain creek commonly called Swarte-Kill, where

the falls on the Paltz Creek, being the bounds of Coll. Jacob Rutsen ; then
along his line and said Swarte-Kill to the northernmost part thereof;
and from thence east to the line of Kingston; then along said line of
Kingston to the patented lands of the heirs of Jacob Aerste ; then along
said land to the patented lands of Matty s and Nicolas Blasyan, so as to
run to the land of said Rutsen, and along the same to the first station;
being bounded easterly, to the land of Kingston, southerly by said Coll.
Jacob Rutsen, northwesterly by the lands of the said Matty s and Nicholas
Blasyan, and the heirs of said Jacob Aertse.”

There was also a deed to four acres on the south side of Swarte-Kill
by the two falls, and privileges to build two dams there.

It is difficult to determine, except by reference to the other towns, and
a comparison of the names with those of the residents after the town
of Esopus was created, who the early families were, with some excep-
tions; even by this comparison the neighborhoods were in sufficiently
close proximity so that the date of individual settlement in what is now
Esopus cannot be determined. Certain family names of early settlers
may be depended on as early settlers in this region.

Some old election returns are found, showing that Esopus cast votes
in 1811: For Lieutenant Governor, Nicholas Fish, 109; DeWitt Clinton,

248

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

19; for State Senator, Elisha Williams, 109; Erastus Root, 20; William
Saber, 20.

The Pound was near the house of William I. Houghtaling. It was
established about 1812. At about the same period the town offered a
bounty of $12.50 “for each wolf killed within the town of Esopus,” and
required that “the person killing the same must bring the head with the
ears on, and make oath to the fact.”

At the first town meeting in 1811 there were 155 votes cast. It was
held at the house of William Ellsworth, and John J. Lefevre was elected
Supervisor.

The house of William Ellsworth, where the first and some other town
meetings were held, was a notable tavern of those days, and for many
years before and afterward. It was located about two miles south of
Port Ewen, and Widow Gitty Ellsworth secured a tavern license there
as late as 1830.

The assessment roll of 1816 shows assessable property amounting to
$87,200. Of these, twenty-six persons were rated $1,000 or over,
amounting in total to $39,450. Three of the twenty-six went above the
$2,000 mark — ^Jeremiah Houghtaling & Sons, $3,600; Elapahs Van Aken,
$2,600, and Garret I. Freer, $2,200.

For a number of years the town meetings were held at the house of
Tjerck F. Terpenning, which was a tavern south of Ulster Park, near
the Reformed Church. The first meeting held there was in 1813 — and
that continued to be the place of election, probably without break, until
1833. In 1834 it was held at the tavern of Thomas M. Holt at Ulster
Park. It was held there occasionally until 1840, after which it was
the regular meeting place for many years and under the management of
a variety of proprietors.

The Reformed Protestant Dutch Church of Kleine Esopus was or-
ganized in 1791. The Classis accepted the petition of ninety-three in-
habitants, and the church was instituted by the Rev. Stephen Goetchius
and a committee of the elders of the church of New Paltz. Two years
later the body was incorporated. Until 1799 the church seems to have
had no settled pastor, but was supplied by Rev. S. Goetchius of New
Paltz, Rev. Mr. Doll, Rev. Mr. Van Horn and others. In 1799 T.
G. Smith was called, and the church has had a regular pastor since that
time. Rev. Mr. Smith continued to officiate for about ten years, and was

Charles C. Lang.

TOWN OF ESOPUS.

249

succeeded by Rev. J. R. H. Hasbrouck. The first church building was
erected in 1792, and remained in use until 1827, when a fine church was
erected which has attracted much attention on account of the beauty of
its architecture.

The District school system provided for by the State legislature in
1812 was adopted by the town of Esopus at its town meeting in 1813.
Previous to this time the records of educational affairs are extremely
meagre, and there is practically nothing to show by what methods the
youth of the previous century-and-a-half had received their education.
But there must have been schools, as the inhabitants were educated

people.

As Esopus did not exist as a town organization previous to 1811, it has
no separate records of Revolutionary times. Those who fought in that
war, and those who subscribed to the Articles of 1775, who were resi-
dents of the territory now comprising Esopus, will be found among the
lists from Kingston, New Paltz and Hurley. Most of them may be traced
by the names and location of the property as given in the records on file.

In the War of 1812 the following persons enlisted from Esopus:

Abraham Degraff,
John Deyo,

Tobias P. DuBois,
Isaac Houghtaling,
Samuel Ostrander,
Stephen Terwilliger,
John B. Van Aken,
Thomas Wells,
William Wise,

Henry Ellsworth,

Henry Degraff,

Purdy Dickinson,
Theophilus Ellsworth,
Henry Freer,

Samuel Lefevre,

John L. Plough,

Mahlon Thorp,

Charles B. Van Wagner,
John Winfield, Jr.

In the Civil War, Esopus furnished about four hundred and twenty-
five volunteers, distributed through the various regiments, which were
raised either partially or entirely in Ulster, though some were in other
organizations. There were twenty-one enlistments in the Navy. The
death list from Esopus was heavy and the examples of distinguished
bravery numerous. AmiOng the most distinguished of Esopus soldiers
was Colonel Daniel Butterfield, who enlisted May 9, 1861, in the 9th
regiment, was promoted to Brigadier-General, September 7, 1861, and to
Major-General, November 29, 1862.

Other Reformed churches in the town are, one at Dashville Falls, in-
corporated in 1833, church built that year and remodeled in 1859; one
at Port Ewen, incorporated in 1851, church built the following year;

250

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

another at St. Remy, organized in 1857, as a branch of the first Esopus
Church. Among the Episcopal churches are the Ascension church, in-
corporated in 1842, and Grace church, in 1845. Among the Methodist
churches are one in Port Ewen, organized in 1870, another, in another
part of the town, organized in 1845. There is also a Catholic church,
organized in 1875.

There are several pretty lakes in the town, one known as Esopus Lake,
another as Mirror Lake, which furnish good fishing.

There were many old taverns or road houses, and among the older boni-
faces there were Peter L. Hardenbergh, John Burger, Martinus Schryver,
Caleb Merritt, Jacob Weist, William Wise, Gitty Ellsworth and Thomas
M. Holt. Among the old merchants were Jonathan J. Lefevre, Israel
Hammond, John H. Schryver, Cheney x\mes and John P. Sleight. The
first physicians were Dr. William Clarke, Dr. Hasbrouck, Dr. Thomas
M. Holt and Dr. Morris Wurts. The early lawyers were William H.
Irving, John F. Slater, John B. Livingston, Peter R. Decker, Jonathan
Sluyter, Benjamin Neice and Marinus V. Wheeler.

Port Ewen, near the mouth of the Rondout, was founded in 1851 by
the Pennsylvania Coal Company, which had a coal depot there until 1865
when they removed to Newburg, where they received their coal by the
Erie Railway instead of the Delaware & Hudson Canal, as at Port
Ewen. This is still a thriving village, with a charming location on the
bank of the Hudson, 180 feet above the river. The view is fine, and
there are many fine houses, a post-office, stores and shops, with churches
and schools. The name was bestowed in honor of President John Ewen,
of the Coal Company. South Rondout, further up the creek, is another
lively hamlet with a brewery, boat yard, malt-house, ice-house, stores,
etc. Sleightsberg is also a hamlet near the mouth of the creek with a
boat building plant, stores, coal yard, ferry to Kingston, etc. Rifton
Glen is a pretty manufacturing settlement on the Wallkill in the south-
western part of the town. It was formerly known as ‘‘Arnoldton,” be-
cause of the cotton mill of B. J. Arnold & Co., built there in 1828. At
present, and for many years past, the principal industry has been the
extensive carpet factory and woolen mills of J. W. Dimmick & Co., which
afford employment to many skilled operators. Ellmore’s Corners is an-
other old center of the town with a hotel and other buildings.

Ulster Park, formerly known as Amesville, has a post-office, hotel.

TOWN OF ESOPUS.

251

stores and shops and a railway station near at hand. This is the center of
the fertile fruit section where small and orchard fruits of all kinds are
successfully and extensively grown for market. Peaches, raspberries,
strawberries, grapes, cherries and pears are the leading fruits raised, and
many large farms are devoted to them. The fruit industry is also
successful in other parts of the Esopus township. The great Pell farm,
on the bank of the river, just below, was a place of much note some
years ago, which attracted many visitors. This place showed the peculiar
adaptation of the Esopus soil and location for fruit-growing. Robert
L. Pell was the owner and, being a man of wealth, intelligence and
energy, he brought these 600 acres to a high state of cultivation, spending
many thousands of dollars in the construction of artificial lakes, islands,
underdrains and bridges, and planting large orchards. It was on this
farm that the celebrated Newtown Pippin apple was raised to its greatest
perfection, and marketed most sucessfully, both here and abroad. He had
an orchard of many thousand trees which was cultivated with the greatest
skill and care. He was the first man to market American apples in
Europe for which he received fancy prices. In fact, it might be said
that Mr. Pell created a market for American apples in foreign countries.
But unfortunately his methods of careful selection and honest packing
have not been faithfully followed in all cases since then, which has weak-
ened the demand in those countries, lowered the prices for xA.merican
fruit, and led to much distrust. The English people went wild over Pell’s
Newtown Pippin apples, and they have never got over the supreme
quality of this fruit since then. The current prices for these Esopus
apples in New York was then $8 a barrel and the choicest specimens
were carefully packed, 100 in a box, and sold for $8 a box. All im-
perfect fruit was converted into cider. Mr. Pell also had a large vine-
yard of Isabella grapes, which he grew successfully. Since his death
this farm has been neglected, although his fine mansion is still standing,
and the large stone warehouse on the Pelham dock where his fruit was
stored previous to shipment.

Just below this place is “Rosemount,” the summer home of Alton B.
Parker, which, with its owner, achieved so much promunence during the
presidential campaign of 1904, when he became the Democratic candi-
date for President of the United States. The town of Esopus leaped into
public notice that year with a single bound, and the place was visited by

252

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

men of prominence and various public bodies from different parts of the
country. A fine new railway station was built on the West Shore road at
Esopus, and most of the fast trains were stopped there that summer. But
the defeat of the Esopus farmer and ex-Judge, who had resigned the
office of Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals to accept this
hope of reaching the White House, left the old town in its customary
placid condition.

The population of Esopus in 1905 was 4,786, 4,516 being citizens. Its
area, as given last year was 22,247 acres, and the assessed valuation of
taxable property amounted to $1,818,820.

James E. Phinney,

TOWN OF GARDINER.

253

CHAPTER XVIII.

TOWN OF GARDINER.
By Charles E. Foote.

HE town of Gardiner is one of the interior towns of Ulster, south

of the center of the county. It was created by taking that portion

of the original Rochester patent which lies east of the Shawangunk
territory, and was organized in 1853. It is bounded on the north by the
towns of Rochester and New Paltz, on the east by the town of Plattekill,
on the south by the town of Shawangunk, and on the west by the towns
of Wawarsing and Rochester. It is hilly in the west along the foothills
and slopes of the Shawangunk Mountains, and rolling in the central and
eastern portions through which the Wallkill flows. The soil is produc-
tive and much attention is given to market gardening for city markets.
Strawberries, especially, are produced in large quantities and of most
excellent flavor. Much attention is also given to dairying.

The settlement of Gardiner took place previous to its formation and
is treated in the historical sketches of the towns from which it was created.
It was within this town that the Huguenots, who settled at New Paltz, and
the Dutch of the town of Rochester, were brought into most intimate
relations. It seems to have been this contact, and the intermarriages
between the two races at an early day, which gradually caused the French
language of the Wallkill valley to be supplanted by the Dutch. A large
proportion of the present population count members of both nationalities
among their ancestors, and the names of both are among the leading ones
in the town.

Among the earlier settlers of this tract were G. Burnett, S. DuBois,
H. L. DuBois, Lewis DuBois, M. Schoonmaker, J. Rutsen, Jacobus
Bruyn, and T. Lord. Some of the land was held by speculators for a
series of years. John Hoornbeck was an early settler, as were Benjamin
and James Hoornbeck. All had families, most of whom intermarried
with other families of the neighborhood.

Adjutant Abraham Schoonmaker, of Revolutionary fame (Fourth Reg-
iment Ulster County Militia), was another of the early settlers. His

254

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

father, Hendricus, owned a tract of about 2,000 acres in the southern
portion of the town, all of which passed on the father’s death to Isaac,
the oldest son. He, however, at once transferred nine hundred acres to
Abraham, who married Sarah Van Wyck, and raised eight sons. At his
death the land was divided between them, and all except Albert remained
permanent residents of the community.

Another of the first settlers was Matthew Sammons, who owned seven
hundred acres, extending from Tuthill to Mark Kill, in which the present
site of Tuthill was included. Gustavus, his oldest son, married Maria
Terwilliger, and had three daughters and four sons, who married into
the Schoonmaker, Hollister, Deyo, and other families, and left numerous
descendants.

Sophrine Bruyn owned about two thousand acres and settled at an early
date. He had three sons. Jacobus and Sophrine being two of them. Some
authorities state that the name was “deBruyn,” but a patent issued
November 26, 1719, for two lots in Shawangunk, does not justify this
claim. The State Index to land papers, records, under date of November
16, 1719, a “Petition of Jacobus Bruyn, praying for a patent for two
certain parcels of land laid out for him in the woods upon and near the
Shawangunk Creek, being a part of the land formerly granted to Capt
John Evans, since resumed to the Crown,” etc.

On this tract Jacobus built a house in 1724, which was located on the
west bank of the creek, and for many years was a famous landmark. It
was destroyed by fire a few years ago. This property is now owned by
U. S. Strait, and the balance of the original tract is in the hands of others,
the Bruyn family being represented in the town by descendants of daugh-
ters who have intermarried here.

John J. Evans settled early in the vicinity of what is now Rutsenville.
He had nineteen children, some of whom settled in Shawangunk, and
some emigrated to the newly opened territory westward.

At and near Libertyville, there were located at an early date, the Mer-
ritt family, Charles, Jonas and Lewis DuBois. These families held tracts
of land in the vicinity, much of which is still owned by their descendants.

In the neighborhood known as Kittleburgh, the LeFevres were the
first settlers, and owned a large tract of land, which is still owned by their
descendants, who form a large proportion of the residents of the locality.

TOWN OF GARDINER.

255

Among others who settled in the immediate vicinity was one of the Deyo
families, which isi still there.

The Sammons family has been referred to as owning the original site
of Tuthill. In addition, however, there were the Van Keuren family, who
lived on the other side of the Wallkill, and Selah Tuthill, for whom the
place was named, whO' bought a portion of Sammons’s land.

A tract of seven or eight hundred acres was owned by General Joseph
Hasbrouck, who lived in the central portion of the town, and Zachariah
Hoffman’s land extended from Hasbrouck’s to the Shawangunk Kill.

The McKinstry family has been a prominent one in the town for many
years, and still has numerous representatives there.

There was a log school-house at a very early day near Unionville, but
there is only tradition as to its exact location or its preceptors. A man
named Berry is said to have taught the grandfathers and great-grand-
fathers of the present generation, about the time of the war of 1812.
There was a school at Tuthill at a later period. Isaac Schoonmaker was
the first superintendent of common schools. He was appointed in 1843.
Among the early teachers in the town appear the names of C. H. LeFever,
Benjamin DeWitt, Isaac Scudder and James Johnston.

The oldest of the few villages or settlements in the town is Tuthill, at
which was probably located the first post-office. Among those who held
the office of postmaster seems to have been Mr. McCullough, Joseph O.
Hasbrouck, James S. DuBois and Mathew LeFever. This post-office
was discontinued a generation ago.

Gardiner is one of the newer villages and is located on the Wallkill in
the northeast part of the town. Abraham Deyo was the first postmaster.

The Reformed Dutch Church was organized in 1833 with twenty-three
members, who were previously members of the churches of Rochester,
Shawangunk and New Paltz. The Roman Catholic Church has a congre-
gation at Ireland Corners, a handsome edifice, sufficiently large for the
needs of the community, which was erected a few years ago, together with
a substantial rectory. The parish, under the present charge of Rev.
William J. Stewart, appears to be in a flourishing condition.

The names of those serving in the war of the Revolution, who lived in
the territory now covered by the town, cannot now be determined except
in isolated cases. Among those known are Abraham Schoonmaker and

256

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

Peter Decker. Among those who served in the war of 1812 were the
following, but there were probably many others :

In the Civil War there were one hundred and thirty-six persons from
the town of Gardiner, probably a majority of them belonging to the 156th
Regiment, although the other Ulster County regiments had a fair repre-
sentation, and several enlistments were made outside the county. There
were a number of line and field officers among them.

In the early years there were a number of industrial enterprises in the
various parts of the town. Among these were a grist mill and saw mill on
the Wallkill at Liberty ville, built by Charles DuBois at a very early date,
and operated by various persons. The saw mill is now destroyed and the
old grist mill is used by the Kays Brothers as a knife factory. A grist
mill, saw mill and carding mill were built on the Shawangunk Creek by
Selah Tuthill. These mills were operated by different parties, including
a Mr. Harlow, Jacob I. Schoonmaker, Joseph O. Hasbrouck and Benja-
min I. Freer. At present only the grist mill is left, which is operated by
Ludwig Brandt. A tannery, established by Daniel McKinstry, an
important industry in the hands of that family for many years, and the
grist mill and saw mill of Joseph Stephens in the western part of the
town, have been long out of business. The tannery was destroyed by
fire. The mills at Galesville have also passed away. George Slaughter
operates a creamery at Gardiner. There is also located at that point a
factory for making Italian cheese, which is owned and operated by people
of that nationality.

Among the early merchants in Gardiner were Selah Tuttle, Daniel S.
Tuttle, Selah T. Jordan, Jacob S. Schoonmaker, John B. DuBois, Isaac
Schoonmaker, James Jenkins, Luther LeFever, Erastus Mack and Mathew
Sammons. John Young and Mr. McCullough were among the older
tavern keepers. The earlier physicians were Dr. Daniel Deyo, Dr. Joseph
Hasbrouck and Dr. Samuel J. Sears.

The Wallkill Valley Railway has stations at Gardiner and Forest Glen.
The construction of this railway was a most important event of great
advantage to the farmers and others of that region.

The first town meeting for the election of officers was held at the house

Philip DuBois,
Samuel Fowler,
Peter I. Crispell,

Robert Jordan.
Jacob Jansen,
Aaron Halwick,

Anthony H. Lawatsch,

TOWN OF GARDINER.

257

of Stephen Traphagen, May 17, 1853. Abner Hasbrouck was then chosen
the first supervisor. Albert Decker is the present representative in the
Board.

Abraham D. Bevier served in the State Assembly from Ulster County
in 1843.

The leading industry has always been agriculture, and the soil responds
well to good cultivation. Fruit is grown to a considerable extent and
successfully.

The population of Gardiner in 1905 was 1,437, of which 1,414 were
citizens. Three hundred and sixty-one persons voted at the general elec-
tion last year.

The total acreage of the town as now estimated is 26,588. The value of
taxable property in the town last year was placed at $668,951.

258

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

CHAPTER XIX.

TOWN OF HARDENBURGH.

By Howard Hendricks.

HIS interior town of Ulster presents some of the most rugged and

austere natural features to be found in the county. None but

the most experienced mountain farmer would be inclined to locate
in Hardenburgh. There are more rock and stone than soil, and there is
little reason to believe that Nature ever designed it for an agricultural
paradise. Nor has it ever been among the suspected sites of the Garden of
Eden. And yet the general topographical features are invested with pecu-
liar charm. The towering mountain crags and scattered bits of valley, the
wildwood and forests primeval, are dimpled over with beautiful lakes and
thickly threaded with purling streams, which abound with trout. And
there are wild and picturesque glens where the true artist may revel in his
work without recourse to his imagination. There is grandeur in these
vast mountain forests, and there is placid beauty in the lovely lakes.
Rarely indeed is the contrasting landscape so happily posed as we find it
in this wild mountain town.

The present area is placed at 53,647 acres. In 1905 these acres were
valued at $90,104, or an average of $1.68 per acre. These people were
assessed for only $600 personal property last year.

The town is bounded on the north by Delaware county and the town
of Shandaken, on the east by Shandaken and Denning, on the south by
Shandaken and Sullivan county, and on the west by Delaware county.
It was formed from Denning and Shandaken in 1859, and named after
Johannes Hardenburgh, who was the original patentee of a vast moun-
tain tract which covered large parts of this and adjoining counties. The
average elevation of the town is about 1,800 feet, and there are three
lofty mountain peaks within its limits. These are Graham Mountain,
3,886 feet. Balsam Mountain, 3,601, and Eagle Mountain, 3,566 feet
above tide. The principal streams flowing south and southwest, to the
Delaware Valley, are the Beaverkill, Mill Brook and Dry Brook. All

TOWN OF FIARDENBURGH.

259

these afford excellent trout-fishing. Expert anglers are attracted here
in large numbers and they are rewarded with fine sport. But large parts
of the best streams are controlled by private fishing clubs.

The town was settled at the beginning of the nineteenth century, and
even before this it is believed there were a few sturdy pioneers of the
white race who were courageous enough to locate in these remote valleys.
Samuel Merwin of Connecticut, was one of these early settlers, and he
located in Dry Brook valley on the place afterward known as the Dyer-
Todd farm. Derrick Haynes soon followed him there, and Hiram Seager
came in about the same time, between 1800 and 1810. Next came Samuel
Todd and his sons Lyman and Burr Todd, and other members of that
family, which soon intermarried with the Seager family. Among other
Dry Brook settlers in 1820 were Alfred Ackley, Oren Baker, Peter Hayes,
Hezekiah Platt, Barney Rider, Harmon Utter, Robert Utter, Edward
O’Neill and Thomas O’Kelly. The first settlers in Mill Brook valley
included David Delemater, Samuel Gavitt and Blasel Gavitt. There was
an old Quaker who located near Balsam Lake, on the upper Beaverkill,
soon after the Revolution. The Messrs. John, Harry and Joseph Banks
also located there a few years later, also Nicholas and John Barnhart.

Small specimens of coal and lead have been found near the sources of
the Dry Brook and Mill Brook, and it is said the Indians used to carry out
lead there during their occupancy of the region. But diligent search has
thus far failed to reveal any deposit of either of these valuable minerals.

The first town meeting was held May 31, 1859, at the house of James
Close, and Samuel M. Seager was then elected the first Supervisor. He
served the town in that capacity also in 1860-68-72-79-81. Marcus A.
Marks served in 1861-62 and 1880. Philo Flint, 1863-64; Hiram D.
Cook, 1865-66-82-85-86; Amos Wamsley, 1867-69-71-73-74-77 ; James
Murdock, 1878-83-84-87 ; Revilo H. Molyneaux, 1888; Robert S. Jones,
1889-93-96-99; Hiram D. Haynes, 1894-95; George F. Marks, 1900-01;
Robert J. Hoag, 1902-3 ; Stratton D. Todd, 1904-05-06.

There are no incorporated villages in the town, but several small ham-
lets where post-offices have been established, as follows : Belleayre,

Hardenburgh, Dry Brook, Seager and Turnwood. Dry Brook is the
eldest of these, and it was formerly known as West Shandaken. There
was a post-office there over sixty years ago, and the mail comes in by way
of Arkville on the Ulster & Delaware Railway, which has long been the

26o

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

best point of egress to this mountain town. Previous to the construction
of this railway the region was indeed much more remote and difficult to
reach. This Dry Brook hamlet contains a Methodist church, a school-
house, blacksmith shop, store, and several dwellings. It is the site of the
pioneer schoolhouse established probably 75 years ago. There are eight
other school districts in the town, one in the upper Dry Brook region,
another in Mill Brook valley, also at Turnwood, and on the upper Beaver-
kill, and one at Shin Creek.

Previous to the erection of the Dry Brook Methodist church in 1868,
religious meetings were held in the schoolhouse by the Methodist people.
Among the early preachers there were Daniel Morrison, Daniel Bullock,
and John Beagle. They were assisted in the active Christian work by
Burr Todd, Eber Merwin, Hiram Seager and Derrick Haynes. The
first cost of this little Dry Brook church was $2,600, and there were
fifteen members. Religious meetings were also held in some of the
schoolhouses. After 1870 the Rev. James Beecher, brother of the noted
Henry Ward Beecher, took up his residence on what was afterward
known as Beecher’s Pond, living at first in a tent. He afterwards built
a neat and comfortable cottage there. Of this he said : ‘T have done all
the work myself and there are associations connected with every clap-
board and shingle even, that is laid.” He seemed fascinated with the
rare scenic charms of the place and said he could live there on $300 a year
more comfortably and enjoyably than he could in New York on $3,000.
Rev. Thomas Beecher, his brother, often spent the summer with him,
and he was also visited by his distinguished sister, Harriet Beecher Stowe,
and his brother Henry Ward Beecher. He usually preached in the old
Shin Creek schoolhouse every Sunday, and the people traveled miles to
hear him.

The principal pursuit in the town is lumbering, and there are many
mills on the different streams. The Seager mill on Dry Brook was built
about fifty years ago by Hiram Seager, and rebuilt in 1880. Further
down this stream Hiram D. Cook built a sawmill in i860. Soon after that
the Todd mill was started further down. Then on the Beaverkill are
other mills, including those of Jones, Wamsley, Jackson and Murdock.

The record shows that 36 of the Hardenburgh citizens served in the
Union army in the Civil War, in which nearly one-third of this number
lost their lives.

Daniel B. Stow.

TOWN OF HARDENBURGH.

261

Much might be said of the beautiful lakes in Hardenburgh. Furlough
Lake, near the center of the town, is a circular sheet of mountain spring
water that is much admired. It was formerly owned by Thomas Cornell
of Kingston, who sold it to George J. Gould some years ago. Mr. Gould;
has built an elaborate summer home there, and he always spends a part of
every summer there with his family. His property covers 3,258 moun-
tain acres, only fifty of which have been cleared. Most of this primeval
forest has been fenced in for an elk and deer park, and the enclosure con-
tains one of the finest herds of these beautiful animals to be found in the
country. Various other highly bred animals, such as rabbits, pheasants,
ducks, geese, peacocks and other poultry are raised by experts there. He
has also a fine stable of blooded horses, Jersey cattle, sheep and swine, and
an extensive dovecote for pigeons. Mr. Gould’s dog kennels contain
some of the most valuable specimens of the canine species in the country,
especially of the Russian wolf-hound. The Lodge building and residence
is quaintly designed and partly rustic, with bark logs below and shingles
on the upper story; with broad piazza all around. The inside finish
and fittings are, however, quite elaborate. The barns and other buildings
are also extensive and most elaborately fitted. The lake and stream for
several miles, are well stocked with brook trout, but the fish are care-
fully guarded from poachers. This fine lake is an eight-mile drive from
the railway station at Arkville.

Balsam Lake is another choice bit of mountain water some four or
five miles south of Furlough Lake. But this is also practically private
property, being controlled by a club of New York gentlemen for its
fishing privilege. They have a commodious clubhouse, and their lease
covers several miles of the Beaverkill stream.

The “Salmo Fontinalis” is another old club on the Beaverkill, com-
posed of elderly New York bankers and business men of wealth and
prominence. Their clubhouse is also quaint and attractive. The Beecher
Pond, before alluded to, is a small secluded lake near the western town
line, made famous by the Beecher family occupancy.

Alder Lake is a beautiful sheet of water near the Beecher Pond, and
one of the largest in the county. Samuel D. Coykendall, of Kingston,
is now the owner of this charming lake, which is most picturesquely sur-
rounded by lofty m.ountain peaks.

262

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

CHAPTER XX.

TOWN OF HURLEY.

By Charles E. Foote.

The title to the territory of the present town of Hurley is derived
from the original treaty of the Dutch with the Indians, and the
grants given to the settlers which were later confirmed by the
English government, and a number of other grants made. Among the
early grantees are the following:

1667 — Philip Pieters Schuyler,

Matthew Blanchar, (probably Blansham),

Cornelius Wynkoop,

Roeloff Swartwout,

Jan Thommassen,

Peter Stuyvesant,

Crespel,

Louis DuBois,

Jan Valckert,

Goosen Gerritse,

Thomas Hall,

Nicholas Varlett & Co.,

Heynear Albertse Roose.

1685 — Waldron Dumont.

1686 — Henry Pawling,

‘ John Jost.

1687 — J. Cornelisen.

1693 — Anthony Crispell

1685 — Wyrtje Allards Heymaus and her children.

i7o8~Cornelis Cool, Adrian Gerritse, Matthias Ten Eyck, Jacobus DuBois,
Johannes Schepmoes, Roelof Swartwout, Cornelius Lamestre, Pieter
Pisterre, Lawrence Osterhout, Jannittie Newkirk.

The original grants by the Dutch government were made in 1660-1664,
so the earlier grants among those noted above seem to be simply a con-
firmation of title to the settlers and original grantees ; the 1708 grant, to
Cornells Cool and others, appears to have been that large tract which
was given to trustees for the benefit of the inhabitants, and which was
divided and distributed one hundred years afterward.

Hurley is bounded on the north by Woodstock, on the east by Wood-
stock, Kingston and Ulster, on the southeast by Rosendale, on the south-
west by Marbletown, and on the west by Olive. It is irregular in shape.

James Millard,

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TOWN OF HURLEY.

263

and has an area of approximately 18,175 acres. It is upland, ranging from
undulating to moderately hilly. It is supposed to have been named in
honor of the Barons Hurley of Ireland, of which family Governor Love-
lace was a member.

The waters of the town are the Esopus, which crosses the southeastern
part of the town on its northward course, and several small streams which
enter it. In the northwest is the Beaver-Kill, formed by a number of
small streams which flow through the town of Olive and into the Esopus
on its southerly course. The Beaver-Kill is the outlet of Temple Pond, a
beautiful sheet of water in the northwestern portion.

In its early settlement the region was known as Niew Dorp. It was
made by the spreading out of the people from Kingston after the treaty
of Peace with the Indians following the first Esopus war, to take advan-
tage of the fine lands further to the west, and to secure larger areas for
cultivation. The village thus formed, about 1661 or 1662, was about three
miles west of Kingston. On June 7, 1663, while most of the men were at
work in the fields, the village was attacked by the Indians and burned,
only an unfurnished, barn remaining. Members of every family are said
to have been killed or taken prisoners. The list is as follows :

Killed: — Martin Harmensen, found dead and stripped, near his wagon.

Jocques Tysson, found dead near ruin of Barent’s house.

Derrick Ariaensen, shot from his horse.

Prisoners : — Jan Gerritsen.

Wife and three children of Louis DuBois.

Two children of Matthew Blanshan.

A woman and two children from the family of Anthony Crispell.

A woman and two children from the family of Lambert Huybertoon.

A woman and four children from the family of Marten Harmenson.

A woman and two children from the family of Jan Joosten.

A woman and one child from the family of Barent Harmensen.

A woman and three children from the family of Grietie Westercamp.

A woman and one child from the family of Jan Barents.

Two children from the family of Michael Frere (probably Freer).

One child from the family of Hendrick Jochems.

One child from the family of Hendrick Martensen.

One child from the family of Albert Heymans.

Nearly all of the prisoners were finally recovered, though some of them
were for several months in the hands of the Indians, and endured many
hardships. It does not appear, however, that they were treated with
cruelty, further than the nomadic habits of their captors made necessary.
They were generally taken to camps and placed in the hands of squaws
for safe keeping.

264

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

The people of Hurley resumed possession of their farms soon after this,
and after the recapture of the prisoners, and the re-uniting of the families,
the work of rebuilding the houses proceeded, and the crops were har-
vested. The large force of soldiers sent into the territory made work
safe, and it is presumed that those settlers who were not with the militia,
were pushing the work of restoration.

The early records of Hurley exist only in fragmentary form, and are
not sufficiently complete to make a connected story. According to some
of the old State documents, the population in 1703 was one hundred and
seventy-four. From an old record it appears that the first trustees of the
town or public lands, granted in 1708, were not appointed until 1719. The
following appears:

“Whereas Colie Peter Schuyler, late president of the council of New York, by
the letter pattents or a confirmation under the great seal of said province of New
York, bearing date the 3d day of September 1719, did appoint Cornelis Kool,
Arien Gerritse, Jacob DuBois, Barnardus Swartwout, Jacob Rutse, Nicholas Roosa
and Charles Wyle to be the first trustees of Hurley and to continue to the first
Tuesday of April, 1722.”

The above record was evidently made as an explanation for the election
of a trustee in 1720, which meeting is the first for the election of municipal
officers of which there is any record. It is known, however, that as early
as 1674 Louis DuBois was a magistrate in Hurley, but at that time the
administration of Hurley may have been included in that of Kingston.

The Elmendorph or Van Elmendorph family was one of the early ones
in Hurley. The original members of this family seem to have been Heer-
manse, Pieter and Jacobus, the first two came with their wives, and settled
in Kingston about 1664, Jacobus married Griete Aertsen in 1677, and
some of his children intermarried with the families of Hurley, and his son
Conraed, settled there. The Koenraedt, Jr., named in the conveyance was
a grandson of Jacobus Van Elmendorph and a son of the Hurley settler.
He married Sarah DuBois, granddaughter of Louis DuBois, in 1736 and
raised a large family, many of whom are still residents of the town.

There were ninety-four persons in Flurley to affix their signatures to
the Articles of Association in 1775, previous to the opening of the War of
the Revolution. Eight of those were said to belong to other towns, and
were on duty in the town with the militia company to which they belonged.
It has been stated that there was not a dissenter in the town.

When Kingston was burned in 1777 the State records were removed

TOWN OF HURLEY.

265

to Hurley and for a time it was the headquarters of the executive officers
of the State. The Committee of Safety met there, and the Governor made
it his headquarters, when not in the field. It was practically the capital
of the State until they adjourned to Poughkeepsie, December 17, where
the Legislature was called in session January 7, 1778. The spy, Taylor,
who had convicted himself by demanding to be taken before “General
Clinton,” and finding him not the General Clinton he expected, was hanged
at Hurley, October 18, two days after the burning of Kingston. The
troops, who had so narrowly missed being able to protect Kingston, were
present at the execution. The village was crowded to its utmost to accom-
modate the refugees from Kingston. The people rose to the occasion,
however, and the very unusual sight was presented of a town of five or
six hundred people sheltering and feeding the people of a destroyed town
of seven times its size, besides providing for a State government.

An interesting communication, evidently a report, is found:

Hurleytown, Oct. 20, 1777.

Headquarters.

“A morning report of the officers of the day, who visited the guards and pickets.

“Col. Webb’s pickets, Col. DuBois and Col. Sutherland all sufficient.

“Col. Hasbrouck’s and Ellison’s deficient in Arms and Ammunition.

“By report of officer of the main guard, countersign “New York.” The sentinels
being frequently visited, found alert on their posts, and the guard consisting of” —
(Here follows a tabulated statement of guards.)

“The number of prisoners confined in the main guard, 27 with the crimes given,
and nine without crimes.

“Given under my hand

“John Hardenberg,

“Col.”

“P.S.-— The guard at Kingston deficient in Light Horse and guides.”

So far as can be learned, Louis DuBois was the first merchant of
Hurley, having been among the original settlers who pushed forward
after the first Esopus War with the Indians. It was from here that he
organized the New Paltz theory into a practical result, being said to
have based the idea on a knowledge of the region of the Wallkill valley,
gained while with the soldiers looking for and finally recapturing the pris-
oners of the second war, among them were his wife and children. At
his death he left considerable property in Hurley, and many of his de-
scendants still reside there. There seem to be about twenty or thirty
of the early families whose names have followed through the entire history
of the town from its earliest settlement to the present, and a glance at the
old church records of Kingston and Hurley shows that they are so per-

266

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

plexingly intermarried, that only the professional genealogist can untangle
the snarled threads of relationship. It is asserted that fully fifty per cent,
of the modern population of the town of Hurley are related to each other
in varying degrees of consanguinity — practically one large family.

A careful comparison of this list of seventy-five families, with all the
names of residents obtainable, indicate that practically every family of any
considerable standing held slaves at that period. Sometimes they were
sold and purchased as is indicated by the following :

‘The bearer, Sym, his wife, a young healthy wench, and a negro boy of about
two years old, are for sale. The negro man has Permission to look a master for
himself and his wife and child.” The Terms of the Payment will be made easy
to the Purchaser. Whoever is inclined to purchase is desired to apply to

“CoENRADT ElmENDORPH.

“Hurley, March 12, 1785.”

In this particular case the negroes were not sold, as is shown by some
old papers given to his son Jonathan some years afterward for love and
afiiection.

On the fourth of April, 1806, the General Assembly enacted a law
providing for the distribution of the lands belonging to Hurley in com-
mon. The basis of the distribution was that every freeholder having an
estate valued at three hundred dollars, and being resident of the town at
the time of the enactment, should have one certain tract or lot of land and
every resident freeholder with an estate valued at less than $300 was to
have a proportionate share of one such tract. The lands were surveyed
into 168 lots, or tracts, and the book of description and bounds is carefully
preserved, as is also a map of the survey.

November 13, 1806, the commissioners who were to make the distribu-
tion, met at the house of Peter Elmendorf to make the necessary arrange-
ments. It was finally decided to make the distribution by drawing. The
commissioners were John S. Dewitt, Levi Jansen and Andrew Snyder.
Levi Jansen was appointed to make the drawing, which was done the
next day at the tavern of Gerret H. Newkirk, at Bloomingdale.

No record is found of the persons from Hurley who were in the War of
1812. There are various legends, and probably many of them are true,
but the verification is lacking.

In the Civil War there were about one hundred and seventy-five vol-
unteers from the town, according to the best available figures. They were
distributed throughout the various regiments and took part in the heavy

TOWN OF HURLEY.

267

work of the Army of the Potomac. The record shows a number of pro-
motions, and several instances of serious suffering and fatal results
from imprisonment in southern military prisons.

In Hurley, as in other towns in Ulster County, the records of early
schools seem to be missing, and the legendary information vague. In
1812 the district system was put into effect and the list of commissioners
and inspectors to 1844 furnish the names of the same families as those
previously given, as does also the list of town superintendents from that
time to 1856. It is beyond question, however, that there must have been
good schools from a very early day, as there are a sufficient number of
ancient autographic documents extant to show that practically the whole
population were educated. Probably many attended school at Kingston.

The population of the town in 1905, according to the State census report
of that year, was 1,677. This was a decrease of 844 since 1880, and 1,337
since 1875. If this count was accurately made, it seems difficult to account
for this loss during the last thirty years ; although the decline in the blue-
stone industry in the northern part of the town, known as West Hurley,
during that period will account for some of it.

This ancient historic hamlet, known in modern times as ‘^Old Hurley,”
which in the early history of the State was for at least one month vir-
tually the Capital of the State, has changed little in outward appearance
since that time. Most of the quaint old stone houses, some of which were
built in the last half of the seventeenth century, are there today in a good
state of preservation and with little change in their form or size. Many
visitors are attracted by these sentinels of the past.

268

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

CHAPTER XXL

TOWN OF LLOYD.

By John H. Coe.

HE town of Lloyd, as a separate municipality, dates from 1845,

when the Legislature took territory from New Paltz and formed

the new town. Previous to that the records of New Paltz covers
its history.

The surface of the town is principally hilly upland, sloping to a bluff,
which averages about two hundred feet in height, along the Hudson
River. It is bounded on the north by the town of Esopus, on the east by
the Hudson, on the south by Marlborough and Plattekill, and on the west
by New Paltz. It has an area of 18,573 acres, exclusive of the public
properties, highways, churches, school lands and grave-yards. West of
the town flows the Swartekill, northward through the town of Esopus,
emptying into the Wallkill a short distance above the junction of that
stream with the Rondout.

Early school records are vague and scarce. It is stated that the early
preachers on the Methodist circuit, which was established shortly after
the close of the Revolution, taught the rudiments of education to the rising
generation for four or five days of each month. Another statement is that
Rev. James I. Ostrom, who organized the Presbyterian Church at High-
land, came to that place as a teacher, after concluding his theological
studies, and finally succeeded in establishing the church in 1808. These
are not supported— neither are they denied — by any known records. It
seems probable there were schools, and good ones, from the very earliest
settlement. The intervening period, from the earliest occupation, to the
maturity of those who studied under the public school system in later
years, shows no great ignorance. There are practically no documents
signed with “his mark.” The development was along lines of educated
intelligence, and there is every indication that the children of those days
were taught in some way, whether at home, by their parents, or by regular
masters, who could wield the rod.

The first record of value is dated in 1813. There seems to have been a

Harcourt J. Pratt.

TOWN OF LLOYD.

269

school conducted by Quakers in the vicinity of Clintondale, but in which
town as at present organized is not known. That year the town voted one
hundred dollars to assist in supporting the school, which was attended by
pupils from all the country around. There were also district schools at
Highland and Riverside, the next district north of Highland.

Among the largest land owners in the town of Lloyd were the Has-
broucks and Eltings. Zachariah Hasbrouck (son of Daniel, grandson of
Abraham of the patent) was born in 1749, and according to the division
of the Paltz grant in 1774, was given one one-hundred-and-twentieth of
the tract as his share. As the members of this family always had “good
heads for business,” it seems probable that this amount had been aug-
mented by the purchase. He and his family lived in the southwestern part
of the town and were classed among the wealthiest men of the region.

Noah Elting was a very early resident and a large land owner, rating,
according to the best information, next to Zachariah Hasbrouck, among
the largest holders of real property in this section. He owned most of the
land where Highland village now stands, Abraham, his son, while a
large property holder, gave most of his attention to matters of transporta-
tion, organizing freight lines into the interior settlements, of which New
Paltz was the center, to carry in supplies and bring out the farm products
intended for the market. The necessities of his own business forced him
to establish a ferry between Highland and Poughkeepsie, which was
operated first by oars and then by sail, afterward by horse-power and
finally by steam. It was not long after the establishment of the ferry for
his personal uses that the demand was sufficient to open it to general
traffic for hire. The ferry at Poughkeepsie was known for many years,
from one end of the river to the other, as a famous property, and its pro-
prietor as one of those men whom it was a pleasure to know.

The Deyo family was among the most prominent. Henry Deyo, grand-
son of the New Paltz patentee, is supposed to have settled in Lloyd some-
where between 1755 and 1765. He had formerly lived in Shawangunk,
where his eldest son, Hendricus, was baptized in 1754, while another son,
Joseph, was baptized in Kingston in 1765. The elder Henry, or Hendricus,
died December 12, 1804, aged seventy-four years, and is buried in the old
Presbyterian cemetery, which is the oldest burial place in this section.

The son Hendricus married Phoebe Woolsey, and it is from them that
the Deyo family of Lloyd descend. He long carried on a milling business

270

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

at the Shadagee, but his residence was a stone house about two miles
south of Highland, which is now owned by Nathan Williams. He left
six sons and two daughters, all of whom left families, many of which left
descendants who still reside here.

James Howell was here before the Revolution. He came from Long
Island and is said to have lived in Marlborough and Plattekill before
settling in Lloyd. Of his five sons and two daughters, two sons, John
and James, remained in the town. The former was a ship carpenter, but
subsequently abandoned it and settled on a farm. Hester Howell is the
only representative of the family left in the town. The Halstead family
settled at Centerville, as did Daniel Ostrom. At an early day the latter
had a woolen mill just north of the hamlet. The Van Wagoners and
Saxtons were also prominent in that section.

Among the different families connected with the earliest history of the
town, living on what is known as the Post Road, was David Woolsey,
who owned the property now belonging to William Strothaff. Reuben H.
Hinds lived on the same road. He was prominent in local affairs, later
moved to New York. This property is now owned by the Irving Deyo
estate. He was Supervisor from 1884 to 1889. William Coe, John H. Coe,
and Abram Coe lived on farms bought by their father, Daniel Coe, who
moved here from Rockland County in 1787, and settled on the bank of the
Hudson. Wells Lake was prominent in local and State affairs. He was a
Representative in Congress for three years, and State Senator four years,
between 1820 and 1830, before Lloyd was set off from New Paltz. He
was also Supervisor of the town for some time. William C. Perkins now
resides on the farm. Philip Elting at one time owned nearly all the land
on which Highland village is located.

Reuben Deyo, son of Sheriff Joseph Deyo, kept the tavern about a mile
south of Highland, on the old Post Road from New York to Albany. For
many years he kept the stage house, where horses were changed and
refreshments served, continuing until the Hudson River Railroad was
built. The old stone tavern still stands, and is in good condition.

In 1903 the old school house, in which our fathers and grandfathers
were educated, was sold, a new site was bought on the New Paltz Turn-
pike, and a new brick edifice, costing fifteen thousand dollars, was erected,
which is a credit to the town.

In the year 1891 the business part of the town of Highland was

Albert Reed, M.D.

TOWN OF LLOYD.

271

destroyed by fire. It was a severe loss to the merchants and others,
but the great energy of the people resulted in rehabilitating the
burned district with larger, better, and more modern buildings, with
improvements not thought of a generation or two ago. The people of
Highland never fail to express their profound thankfulness and gratitude
for the courtesies and substantial benefits which they received from the
neighboring cities and villages at that time.

Dr. Barnabas Benton was an early physician. Dr. Hasbrouck began
practice about 1825 and continued many years. Joseph Deyo was Sheriff
of the county in 1821-1822; as was Silas Saxton in 1873.

Among the earlier members of the State Assembly from Ulster County
were the following from the town of Lloyd : Wells Lake, 1820-22 ;
Reuben H. Hine, 1844; Job G. Elmore, 1847; John B. Howell, 1853;
A. E. Hasbrouck, 1867-68-69.

The County Clerks from Lloyd have been Silas Saxton, in 1858, and
Nathan Williams in 1864.

The first merchants of Highland and vicinity were Abram Elting,
Solomon Ferris, and John B. Caverly. Their stores were at the landing
where all the business of the village was carried on. Others later were
John Howell, Thomas Deyo, Absalom Barrett, George Rose, C. B. Harri-
son, DuBois & Bond, DuBois Brothers, etc. W. W. Mackey and Charles
Letts have hotels at Lloyd.

About six years ago the First National Bank of Highland was organized
with a capital stock of $25,000, most of the stock being taken by the
people of the town. It seems to be doing a safe and profitable business
under an efficient corps of officers. George W. Pratt is now the president.
The first president, George W. Rose, died in 1903.

The trolley road from Highland Landing to New Paltz was built in
1897, along the line of the Highland and New Paltz turnpike. It has a
heavy freight and passenger traffic, and has been the means of building
up a large summer boarding business through that wondrously attractive
region.

The milling business of Highland is done by Philip Schantz, with his
brothers, Martin and Joseph, as assistants; L. Traphagen has what is
known as the Blue Mill, in connection with his cider mill. Mr. Uhle also
manufactures cider, and Abram Relyea, of Lloyd, buys large quantities

272

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

of apples for the same purpose. Amos Weed is running what was
formerly the Saxton grist and saw mill in Lloyd.

The berry and grape-crate manufacturing industry is large and impor-
tant, and employs more help than any other industry in the town. The
combined work of the four factories, Marenns Prester, James Wescott,
George Pratt & Son, of Highland, and Abram Relyea, of Lloyd, resulted
in the production and sale, in 1905, of the following goods:

12,542,000 pint and quart cups,

1,750,000 grape tills,

224,000 berry and grape crates,

50.000 peach baskets,

10.000 apple boxes and grape trays,

5,000 apple barrels.

The postmaster at Plighland is Frank Simpson. There are four rural
deliveries from this office, with daily service, each covering a distance of
about twenty-two miles. The revenues of the office aggregated about
$4,500 during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1906.

The shipping from Highland is heavy and represents the industry of the
community. During the year 1905 there were shipments, by rail and
water, aggregating 250,434 packages. It is estimated that the average
bulk of the packages would be about a bushel each.

One of the most interesting cemeteries to be found anywhere, is the
Old Lloyd burying-ground, or as it is perhaps better known, the old
Methodist burial ground. There are a number of old stones with inscrip-
tions which may be deciphered. Among them are the following:

“Samuel Buncombe, Esq., born August 26, 1779, died Feb. 5, 1827.”

“Joseph Quick, died Dec. ii, 1868, aged 74 years, 4 months, 26 days.”

“Henry A. Elting, died June i, 1810, ae 48 years and 3 months.”

“Rev. Stephen Jacob, died April 24, 1819.”

“Michael Le Roy, February — 1815, in his 70th year.”

“Henry Deyo, died Dec. 12, 1805, M 74.”

“Andrew Du Bois, died May 9, 1716, aged 62 years.”

“Joseph Deyo, died Feb. 10, 1834, aged 59 years, i month and 10 days.”

“Noah Elting, died April 6, 1813, 2E 49 years, 5 months and 4 days.”

“John Le Fever, Sept. 10, 1836, aged 60 years.”

On a monument in the new Highland cemetery are the names of thirty
soldiers from the town who lost their lives during the Civil War. The
monument is handsome and was erected by the Ladies’ Monument Asso-
ciation of Highland. Lieutenant C. W. Ransom is also buried here.
Lloyd furnished about one hundred and thirty men to that memorable
struggle.

TOWN OF LLOYD.

273

After the enactment of the law creating the town of Lloyd, a town
meeting was held at the residence of Lyman Halsted on May 6, 1845,
the following officers were elected :

Supervisor, Reuben Deyo.

Town Clerk, Hasbrouck Le Fevre.

Superintendent of Schools, Aaron Tuthill.

Justices of the Peace: Silas Saxton, John B. Howell, John S. Deyo.

Assessors: John H. Coe, David S. Degarius, William J. Relyea.

Commissioners of Highways: Robert Woolsey, Alexander Hasbrouck,
Robert E. Rose.

The present Supervisor of Lloyd is Philip Schantz, who also served in
that capacity in 1898-1901-02-03. He was also elected Sheriff of Ulster
County in 1894.

Previous to the construction of the West Shore Railway along the fine
river front of this town, there were many handsome residences with at-
tractive grounds on the bank of the river, owned and maintained in fine
style by wealthy men of New York and other cities. But as the railway
line begins to descend to the river shore soon after entering the town from
the north, these fine country seats were broken up and destroyed by the
grading and excavations for the tracks, and the operation of trains makes
it undesirable for residence. Thus many of these large estates have been
divided and sold for other purposes. Among other things, one or two
large religious schools or convents have been built there. There are two
railway stations on the West Shore in the town, one at Highland, another
at West Park. One of the finest railway bridges in the world spans the
Hudson from Highland to Poughkeepsie. This bridge was built several
years ago and it is now being greatly strengthened at a very heavy cost,
in anticipation of largely increased traffic in the immediate future.

An important annual event at this point in the river is the college boat
races, which take place in the Hudson over a four-mile course every
summer in June, and attract vast multitudes of people from all parts of
the country. This is considered the finest rowing course in the land, and
the races are keenly contested. The most favorable point to view the
contest is from the Highland side of the Hudson.

The soil of this town is most favorable for fruit growing. It is well
tilled and yields excellent crops of small fruits, peaches, etc. In 1875 the
number of apple trees growing was placed at 18,1556; and these orchards

274

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

then produced 46,116 barrels of apples and 495 barrels of cider. The
grape yield was estimated at 295,315 pounds.

The population of the town in 1905 was 2,722, of which 2,606 were citi-
zens. Last year the total assessments of taxable property in the town
were $876,952. There were 638 citizens who voted at the election in 1905.

TOWN OF MARBLETOWN.

275

CHAPTER XXII.

TOWN OF MARBLETOWN.

By C. T. Frame.

MARBLETOWN is in the central part of Ulster County. Bounded
on the northeast by Hurley, southeast by Rosendale and New
Paltz, southwest by Rochester, and northwest by Olive. The
area of the town is 31,696 acres. Of this, 20,538 acres were improved
and 9,262 acres unimproved or woodland in 1875.

The title is derived from the patent given by Queen Anne, Jan. 25,
1703. The town trustees under this patent adopted a seal, bearing the
name “Marbletown” at the top, and at the sides the motto: “Be just to
trust.'’ The upper part of the central shield is occupied by two deer and
the lower part by three sheaves of wheat, signifying the hunting grounds
of the upland forests and the fertility of the lowlands. This seal is still
in the Town Clerk’s office. In an agreement between the Trustees of
Rochester and Marbletown, dated 1768, January 3, in regard to the bound-
ary lines, we find a statement of the original bounds as given to the fol-
lowing Town Trustees: “Granting unto Col. Henry Beekman, Capt.
Thomas Garton and Capt. Charles Brodhead, their heirs and assigns for-
ever, all that tract or parcel of land lying and being in the town of Ulster
aforesaid and beginning at the bounds established and laid out by the
Commissioners appointed by Col. Lovelace, Late Governor of the said

276

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

Province of New York, in the year of our Lord Christ 1669, between the
said town of Marbletown and the town of Hurley, thence running south-
east to the northwest bounds of the New Paltz, thence along the north-
west bounds of the New Paltz to Capt. John Evans, his land, till opposite
the southwest side of John Van Kamp’s land ; thence with a northwest
line of the Great Mountain, commonly called the Blue Hills; thence
northeast, something northerly, along the said hills as far as to run a
southeast line to the place where first began, and then by said southeast
line to the place where first began.” A portion was taken from the above
to form a part of the town of Olive in 1823, and another portion in 1844
to form part of Rosendale. Previous to those dates the records are found
in the record of Marbletown.

Marbletown was settled in 1669, according to the following report:
^‘The Commissioner, who had named the new village “Hurley,” reported
that he had assisted in forming another settlement beyond, which was
Marbletown,” which is now called North Marbletov/n, and was so named
from the ridge of marble or lime-stone which extends across the town
for a distance of eight miles.

The surface consists of the foothills of the Catskills and western slopes
of the Shawangunk Mountains, broken by the valleys of the Rondout
and Coxingkill at the base of the Shawangunk Mountains, and the valley
of the Esopus coming down from the Catskills, which turns at a right
angle near Stone Ridge and extends northeast toward Kingston. Stand-
ing on Sky Top, the highest point of land in the town, 1,500 feet above
sea level, the eye scans the entire township spread out like a fan to the
base of the Catskills, or “Great Blue Hills,” as they were called in the
earliest records. 'Here and there you see the silver sheen of the Rondout
as it flows through a fertile valley dotted with m.any well-kept farms.
Looking toward the northeast we see the cone-shaped Joppen Bergh,
which was formerly a corner of Marbletown but now is in Rosendale;
and in the distance a glimpse of the Hudson ; while toward the north the
ravine of the Esopus is seen, and toward the west rises High Point at an
elevation of 3,098 feet.

The ridge between the Rondout and the Esopus forms a watershed
upon which is located the village of Stone Ridge and the old King’s
Highway from Kingston to Ellenville, which was formerly an Indian
trail to the Neversink valley.

TOWN OF MARBLETOWN.

277

The population, as given in State Documents for the year 1703, was
227, at which date, June 25, 1703, the patent was obtained from Queen
Anne. Those who had already settled within the limits of Marbletown,
as well as those afterward coming here, received from the town Trus-
tees deeds. These are on record in the Town Clerk’s office, except one
volume. Book D, which is lost. The proceedings of the Town Trustees
are also recorded, and the annual election of officers in an unbroken series
for two hundred and three years in the most authentic and concise form.
The following extracts taken from the first volume of town records are
given. “Att a meeting of Trustees of Marbletown at said town this 23rd
day of Sept., 1703, present Coll. Henry Beekman, Capt. Thomas Carton,
Capt. Charles Brodhead, Trustees, and John Cock Sen. Esq. Richard
B'rodhead Assistants, and the major part of the freeholders and inhabi-
tants of said town, it is ordered and established that no land be given out,
but wood and stone shall be reserved free for the use of the town and
freeholders and inhabitants thereof of any part of said land that shall
not be fenced in, also sufficient ways over any of the said lands to be
reserved, and if any take up land are to pay for lowland 12 pence, and
upland six pence per acre.” While the settlers were thus making rules
to appropriate the lands, we find an Indian Chief of whom the Dutch pur-
chased land lying in Marbletown, as the original deed now owned by
Charles Hardenbergh shows, viz: The first deed recorded is to Gysbert
Roosa for 73 acres in town parcels the greatest by a small run of water
under the northeast side of a mountain called Jobsenbright (Joppen-
bergh) lying on the northwest side of Rosendale the smaller near Capt.
Henry Pawling called Cocksink, Deed dated 1704.

The above Capt. Pawling was the first Sheriff of Ulster County, whose
son, Capt. Levi Pawling, commanded the troops at the defense of Kings-
ton, Oct. 16, 1776. Their names appear as residents of the town of Mar-
bletown. Capt. Levi Pawling was an officer in the Old Marbletown
Church, as was also Major Albert Pawling. Among the earlier settlers,
according to researches made by the late Historian, J. W. Hasbrouck,
were Christopher Bersford, Jan Joosten, Richard Cage, Jan Briggs, Will-
iam Ashfordby, Frederick Hussey, Teunis Claes, Anthony Addison and
George Hall.

For several years after settlement the growth of the town was slow,
owing probably to the nearness of the Indians. We have no record of

278

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

any fights between the Indians and settlers in this town, but the reason
was perhaps that the Dutch secured deeds from the Indians.
The settlers confined their attention to the lowlands along the Esopus
and the sloping hills, toward what is now Stone Ridge, known at that
time as the “Butterfields.'*’ These settlers were largely engaged in dairy-
ing, as the uplands furnished rich pasturage for their cattle, which roamed
over the commons free. The Mormel, butter and cheese were exported.

At this time the settlers, who had planned their homes near one another
found it more convenient to secure lands outside the village (Marble-
town). We find that Anthony Addison and John Garton obtained per-
mission to leave the village and settle on the other side of the Esopus at
v/hat is now called Lomontville, and that John Beatty moved to Stone
Ridge and erected the first white man’s dwelling-house.

About the same period Hendrick Cornelius Bogart purchased on the
old creek near the mill of William Eltinge, just constructed at the pic-
turesque falls, owned in later years by Cornelius Bogart, and known as
Bogart’s Glen. William Nottingham purchased near the mill of Charles
Hardenbergh, a descendant in direct line. The grant of lands in Butter-
field to Beatty and Ashfordy was followed by grants for portions of the
same tract to George Hall, and Thomas and John Kerton.

The Documentary History for the year 1755 shows that, while the set-
tlers were exporting butter, cheeese and wheat, they were importing
slaves to do their work, whose descendants still live in the town.

The Marbletown Roll of Honor. The names of the signers of the
Articles of Association. On Saturday, the 29th day of April, 1775, ten
days after the battle of Lexington, “The Freemen, Freeholders and In-
habitants of the City and County of New York” adopted the bold and
manly “Articles of Association” which was sent to all the Counties in the
State for subscribers. When it reached Ulster County, many openly de-
clared it treason, but a large number immediately signed it and offered
their lives and fortunes in the defense of Liberty, though every town had
its Tories and spies ever ready to help the enemy. Though a century
has rolled by since those days, those Tories are despised to this day.

Levi Pawling, a resident of Marbletown, was County Judge of Ulster,
elected Jan. 15, 1778. James Oliver, of Marbletown, was elected County
Judge March 9, 1779. As early as Nov. 4. 1674, George Hall was ap-

TOWN OF MARBLETOWN.

279

pointed Sheriff of Ulster County, William Ashfordley, Oct. 1683, and
Henry Pawling, October, 1685.

The patent for the territory of Marbletown was granted June 25, 1703.
Trustees were at first appointed to have charge of the lands. They had
authority to regulate public matters to the extent of protecting the set-
tlers in the enjoyment of the titles granted to them for their land.

The commons land was disposed of by Act of Legislature passed in
1802. The commissioners in charge of the sale were John A. Dewitt and
Jacob Chambers. William Nottingham was the first town clerk, and he
was employed by Marbletown and Rochester. It is said he came from
England with Col. Nicolls at the time of the surrender of New Nether-
lands to the British crown in 1664. The forms and wordings of the
entries show that he had a great deal of ability, with an education far in
advance of the other settlers.

A letter of Charles Dewitt, dated Hurley, August, 1763, is important:
Dear Str:

We have the greatest crops of wheat here that we have had for many years past
and the most fruitful year that I can remember. ^ * We manage in general

as usual, only we have taken a particular turn this year to build school-
houses; which at present are more plenty with us than schoolmasters. The upper
end of Marbletown at Daniel Cantine’s they have built one after the old fashion,
viz., a large heap of white oak, black oak and perhaps other sorts of timber piled
up to convenient height and two or three holes cut in for the children and light
to pass. This building is not so magnificent as another built near Father Dewitt’s,
of stone, a shingle roof, two floors, but they tell me the upper floor is not planed
very smooth, the joists ugly, etc. ; however, two large sashes are made therein,
besides another place where the master and his children pass and repass. * * *

MARBLETOWN THE CAPITAL OF THE STATE.

The organization of the State government had been commenced at
Kingston by the inauguration of George Clinton as Governor, July 30,
1777. The first Legislature, with Col. Levi Pawling, of Marbletown, as
one of the Senators, had met at Kingston, Sept. 9th, and remained in
session until Oct. 7th, when they appointed a new Council of Safety and
adjourned; the British having been successful at Fort Montgomery, and
an invasion of Kingston being deemed probable. The Council of Safety
were thus, ad interim, the real executive authority of the State, Governor
Clinton being in the field with the Continental forces.

At the burning of Kingston the Council of Safety fled to Marbletown ;
and on the 19th of October, three days after the invasion, they com-

28o

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

menccd their sessions at the home of Andrew Oliver. They remained
for one month, issuing orders and providing for all the exigencies of
public affairs. On November i8th they removed to Hurley and met at
the house of Captain Jan Van Deusen until December 17th, when it is
reported that on account of cold and uncomfortable quarters they ad-
journed to Poughkeepsie. Marbletown was a village of forty-three houses
at this time. Andrew Oliver came from Ireland and settled in Marble-
town about 1740. His homestead is the present place of John Oliver a
great-great grandson, and the house in which the Committee of Safety
met stood between the present dwelling and the barns belonging to the
farm. The house of Andrew Oliver was taken down some time after
1800, and the present spacious mansion erected, in which Dr. James
Oliver had a medical school for a time.

On a map of the Oliver farm, drawn in 1795, in possession of John
Oliver, there is a rough drawing of the old house where the Committee
met. It was a large two-story stone building. In the front there were
six upper and five lower windows with the door making an equal num-
ber; while beyond is the Old Dutch Reformed Church erected in 1774,
and across the road is pictured the Davis tavern, of historic interest, as the
place where the public business of the Marbletown patent was transacted,
and the annual meetings of the inhabitants held for many years before the
Revolution. The records show these meetings to have been “at the house
of Janitze Davis,” “the Widow Davis” and “at the house of Frederick
Davis.” These different references refer to the same house. It is still
standing and evidently of great age. Its low doorways and general
appearance point back to the days of the early settlement, as this was the
center of the Marbletown of early colonial days.

In the old burial-place close by we find numerous head-stones bearing
date 1692, 1693 and 1699, which indicates a large settlement. Beyond the
town-gate, which was located at the junction of Ashokan and Neversink
trails, the village was located in 1669.

The following is a list of a company under Capt. Daniel Brodhead.
Compared with the list that went into the army during the Revolution
and the Civil War, it will be seen that the same family name often occurs,
showing that the heroic blood of their ancestors flows in the veins of the
children, who are prepared at any time to defend with their lives the heri-
tage their fathers gave them.

TOWN OF MARBLETOWN.

281

Muster-roll of a company of Militia of the town of Marbletown in the
year 1738:

Capt. Daniel Brodhead, Lieut. John Dewitt, Ensign John Brodhead, Sergts.
Martin Bogart, Jacobus Bush, Thomas Keator, Corporals Cornelius Van Campen,
Christopher Davis, Jacob Keator, Peter Vanderbergh; Clerk, Richard Pick,
Lambert Brink, Johannes Van Leuven, Andries Van Leuven, Frederick Davis,
Gysbert Roosa, Jan Roosa, Jacob Keyser, Balentine Smith, Teunis Clearwater,
Johannes Bush, James Robinson, Matthew Algar, James Algar, Hartman Hine,
Arien Van Demark, Jacob Van Demark, Jacob Middagh, Jacobus Tack, Isaac
Tack, Johannes Jansen, Dirck Bush, Melgart Keator, Henderick Roosa, Thomas
Van Demark, Augustinus Keator, Hendrick Van Demark, Dirck Keyser, Samuel
Davis, Samuel Cock, Benjamin Davis, Alexander Ennis, Andrew Kernitts, Isaac
Van Kampen, Samuel Moorits, Johan Thomas, Moses Cantine, Nicholas Keyser,
William Hine, John Wood, Johannes Eltinge, Anthony Gerrits, Cornelius Tack,
Jr., Henry Jansen, Thomas Bush, Frederick Keator, Hendrick Bush, John Pierce,
Lambert Bush, Moses Depuy, Johannes Van Demark, Thomas Van Demark, Jr.,
Nicholas Van Demark, Arie Keator, Thomas More.

Under the act of the Council of Safety, passed Nov. ii, 1777, at the
house of Andrew Oliver, the export of flour, meal and grain to any part
of the country in possession of the enemy was strictly forbidden. A.
license to make a single sale was necessary. David Bevier was a commis-
sioner for this section, and several oaths on procuring such licenses are
among the papers of his grandson, Louis Bevier. Leonard Hardenbergh
had a license (Feb. 10, 1778), to export not more than four barrels of
flour, on condition that he brought into this country an equal value of salt,
either for the use of his family, or to retail to others. Others licensed
were Johannes Roosa, Jacobus Morris, Daniel Johnson, Christopher
Snyder, Roeloff Eltinge and Abraham Terpening.

At this date the inhabitants had increased in prosperity and wealth, also
in deep religious beliefs. The total amount of tax collected in 1811 was
$409.72. For the same area, nearly a century later, in 1907, it is $17,812.90.

The Marbletown Reformed Church is among the most ancient religious
associations in the county, being probably second to the parent Dutch
Church in Kingston, with which its early history seems closely inter-
woven. While the precise date of the organization is not definitely known,
though stated in the '‘Manual” as 1737, the records show that as early as
Sept. 27, 1677, a petition signed by the consistory of Kingston, Hurle>
and Marbletown, was sent to Lord Andross, Gov. General under James,
Duke of York, reading as follows : "Inasmuch as we, in the three villages,
are at present without a Pastor, and cannot be served by our neighbors,
being so far from each other, we have by voluntary promises, secured 600
bushels of wheat, for which we would gladly call a Pastor, and in which

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THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

may your Honor be pleased to be favorable to us in the calling of the
same.’’ This request was signed by Wessel TenBroeck, Jan Mattyssen,
Dirck Schepmoes, Jan Hendrickse, Allardt, Heymanse Roosa, Roelof
Hendrickse, Jan Jorsten and Wjn. Jansen. It was promptly approved,
and Dominie Laurentius Van Gaasbeck was sent over from Holland.
While at Kingston he seems to have served the Marbletown people, and
in 1679 he reported 20 mefbers there. There seem to have been meet-
ing-houses in Hurley, Marbletown and other places in 1730, but all were
appendages of the Kingston church at that time. A unity of feeling and
general thirst for the gospel not easily understood in these days, is shown
to have existed then, by the fact that three and four different congrega-
tions would call a single pastor and dwell together in harmony.

The first church building, 44 x 54, capable of seating 250, was com-
pleted in 1746 at a cost of £225. The pews were sold to cover this out-
lay, with the reservation of certain free pews for the Justices, Dominie’s
family, and the consistory. This list of original pewholders contains 132
names. In 1750 the churches of Marbletown, Rochester and Wawarsing
combined, and continued thus unitl 1795. But they were unsuccessful in
securing a permanent pastor for a time, owing perhaps to a somewhat
unique system of mathematics which seems to have prevailed in the minds
of the consistory which made out the calls. For it is said that a copy of
one of these ancient documents now in possession of Mr. Louis Bevier,
of this town, states that “Marbletown- was to receive three-sixths of the
pastor’s services, Rochester three-sixths, and Wawarsing “one-seventh.”
A new church was erected on the present site in 1851.

The North Marbletown Refonned Church, an offshoot from the old
church, now at Stone Ridge, was built in 1852, near the site of the
original church in the burial-ground, about half way between Kings-
ton and Rochester. The following is the early succession of pastors of
the old church: Hendricus Frelinghuysen, 1754; Dirck Romeyn, 1764;
J. R. Hardenbergh, 1781 ; Abr. Van Horne, 1789; Stephen Goetschius,
1796; John H. Carle, 1814; Christian E. Paulinson, 1826; Cornelius L.
Van Dyke, 1829; J. L. McNair, 1854; William A. Shaw, 1859; J. L. Mc-
Nair, i860; Wm. W. Brush, 1868; Victor M. Hulbert, 1872; Bastion
Smits, 1884; Wm. W. Schomp, 1885.

There are several other churches in the town, including Methodist

TOWN OF MARBLETOWN. 283

churches at Stone Ridge, High Falls and Kripplebush, and an Episcopal
church at Stone Ridge.

The fertile soil of Marbletown is especially adapted to farm cultiva-
tion, and it has often been called ‘‘the garden spot of Ulster County.”

The first Supervisor of Marbletown was Moses Cantine, Jr., who served
from 1808 to 1810. Louis Bevier, who is still living, served for eight
years, beginning in 1874, and Dr. Herman Craft served nine years. The
present Supervisor is Lemuel Bogart.

The rare scenic beauty spot of this old town is Lake Mohonk, a small
part of which nestles in the triangular point on the southern border near
the Rochester line. This of late years has become one of the most famous
and favored summer resorts in the country. For romantic beauty and
wild wood rocks it has no equal east of the Rocky Mountains. The place
is also unique and notable because of the fact that it is one of the very few
popular resorts in the land which has been operated strictly upon the
temperance plan with high moral standards from the very start, and
has proved a continued success in every way. The following paragraphs
from a recent descriptive writer as to its scenic charms will be of interest :

To a lover of nature in its wildest, most romantic and picturesque
phases, there are few localities on the American continent offering more
attractions than Lake Mohonk and its immediate surroundings. In cer-
tain of its aspects the region has much to remind one of Switzerland, with
its cliff-encircled glens, its high mountain reaches and wide-spreading
vistas of hills and valleys. Situated on a plateau of the Shawangunk
Mountains, thirteen hundred feet above the Hudson, the Lake Mohonk
estate comprises an area about six miles in length by nearly a mile wide.
Near one end lies the little lake from which the place takes its name, a
body of water which the Indians called Moggunk (Sky Top), changed in
later days to the more euphonious Mohonk. This lake, which is more
like an enormous bowl of clear, cold water, carved out of the solid cliffs
which rise sheer from its edge on every side save one, has a depth of from
forty to eighty feet and a circumference of something over a mile. Tow-
ering above the lake on its eastern side, and three hundred feet above its
surface, is Sky Top, the highest peak of the Shawangunk range. From
this elevated point, which has been made accessible by a winding foot-
path up the cliff, and also by an easy carriage road, a panorama rolls out
which is scarcely paralleled for m.agnificence in the world. Within the

TOWN OF MARBLETOWN.

285

vision are portions of six States — the hills of New Jersey and
northern Pennsylvania, the Berkshire Hills of western Massachusetts and
Connecticut, the Green Mountains of Vermont, and, in the foreground
on the east, the Highlands skirting the Hudson River valley, and on the
west and north the Catskills. In the nearer foreground on the east, and
immediately below, at the foot of the mountain, lies the broad and fertile
valley of the Wallkill with its orchards, cornfields, and wide-rolling
meadows, and in the midst of these, the thrifty old town of New Paltz.
Immediately below the mountain-crest on the west, stretches away the
Rcndout valley in an entrancing vision of rich farm lands, pretty villages
and winding streams, with the classic country of Rip Van Winkle on the
distant horizon. Truly, one m.ust have less than the eye of an artist or
the soul of a poet to look out over this encircling landscape of mountains,
valleys and uplands, when mantled in the fresh greenery of early June,
or when decked out in the glories of October, and not feel a thrill at the
heart and the coming of thoughts too deep for words.

Stretching along the cliffs west of the lake opposite Sky Top, is the
great hostelry with its battlements and towers, suggestive of some old
castle on the Rhine, within whose spacious walls have been held for these
twenty years and more the two conferences which have given the place
world-wide fame.

While the utmost care has been taken to preserve and develop all the
natural beauty of the Mohonk estate, the finest landscape art and a vast
amount of money have been drawn upon to enhance its loveliness and
make it accessible with ease and comfort to guests and tourists. To this
end some fifty miles of macadamized roads have been constructed under
the cliffs and around the mountains, while half as many miles of winding
paths, carefully guarded at dangerous points, lead to the glens, the caves,
the peaks, the ledges above the lake, and other places of interest. At
frequent intervals along these roads and paths pretty little summer houses
thatched with straw after the Swiss pattern, have been erected and pro-
vided with restful seats. Running out from the lake and the hotel at
their northern extremity is an open space of fifteen acres converted from
a rock-strewn forest plot into spacious lawns and gardens, wherein is a
profusion of the rarest vines, shrubs and flowers.

The first humanitarian work to which Mohonk opened its doors was in
behalf of the Indians. The first conference in their interest was held at

286

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

the Lake in October, 1883, and has been held annually in that month ever
since. Mr. Albert K. Smiley was prompted to this step by the fact that
he had been a member of the Board of Indian Commissioners for some
years previous and had become deeply concerned in the welfare of the
aborigines. In 1904 this conference broadened its scope by taking under
its consideration the native peoples of Porto Rico, Hawaii and the Philip-
pines.

The establishment of the second conference, that in the interests of
international arbitration, was in 1895. These conferences are usu-
ally held about the first of June, while the Indian conferences are held in
October. To each of these conferences Mr. Smiley invites and entertains
as his personal guests some three hundred men and women, carefully
selected from among those who have special knowledge of the subjects
to be considered, and the interest and influence to make their knowledge
felt by the public at large and in places of power.

C. Meech Woolsey.

TOWN OF MARLBOROUGH.

287

CHAPTER XXIII.

TOWN OF MARLBOROUGH.

By Hon. C. M. Woolsey.

IN this brief history no attempt is made to give all the events that
have transpired in the town from its first settlement, but merely to
record the earlier events, the trials and struggles, the habits and
customs, of the sturdy, industrious people who settled here, and carved a
home and name among these stony hills and valleys. They are worthy
of all praise for what they accomplished, because several colonies at dif-
ferent times had previously examined and inspected these shores, and
discouraged at their ruggedness and barren soil, settled in other places.
These settlers had hardly completed comfortable houses and buildings,
and cleared a small part of the land, when they were called upon to face
a long and bitter war with a foreign nation, and many of their neighbors
took sides in opposition. They had to endure great suffering and priva-
tion. But the earlier papers and records have disappeared, and little has
been left to us. In this paper, family history is omitted. My great-great
grand parents, Richard Woolsey and Sarah Fowler, were among the first
settlers. They had twelve children, all of whom left families, and I can-
not even give all the descendants correctly. It appears impossible to trace
the bounds and locations of the various patents of land correctly except
the Bond Patent, so they are simply referred to.

Some new information has been gathered, mostly documentary. I
have personally examined the records and originals and consider them
correct.

There was no civil organization of the lands now embraced in the
Town of Marlborough, until the colony called the Palatines, settled where
Newburgh now is, in 1709, when the Precinct of Highlands was formed
and attached to New Paltz, all within the County of Ulster as it then
existed.

Prior to 1697 '‘Dennis Relje,’' or, as he was afterward callea, “Old
Dennis” and “The Old Man,” came here. He was the first settler and

288

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

was probably put into possession by Capt. John Evans (of the Royal
Navy), who had an immense tract of land along the river from Cornwall
north, about eighteen miles, and extending back into the woods a long
distance. This patent, granted to Evans in 1694, vacated and set aside
in 1699, required that there should be an actual settlement within three
years after the grant, and Relje was put on it for that purpose and settled
on the Kill where Marlborough now is.

It was claimed by the people who petitioned to have the Evans patent
annulled, that there was but one house upon the tract and that was where
Cornwall now is. But Evans claimed that he had several settlers on the
tract and had expended considerable sums of money on improvements.
It appears by the petition of Egbert and Hendrick Schoonmaker that they
asked for about 600 acres “on both sides the Oudtman’s Kill or Creek.”
This petition was dated 1697, and the Kill was so named at that time,
being the Kill running from Lattintown to Marlborough and the river.

This Kill was named after “Old Dennis,” and has ever since gone by
the name of “Old Man’s Kill,” or Creek.

The organization of the territory remained the same until 1743, when
by Act of Assembly three full precincts were formed, having all the
officers of towns and exercising all their duties. These were Wallkill,
Shawangunk, and Highland. Highland embraced what is now Marl-
borough, Plattekill, Newburgh and New Windsor, covering the patents
along Hudson River, from Murderer’s Creek (Moodney Creek) to the
line of New Paltz. It was bounded on the east by Hudson’s river, on
the south by the line dividing the counties of Ulster and Orange; on
the west by the precincts of Wallkill and Shawangunk and the neighbor-
hoods annexed to the New Paltz; and on the north by the bounds or line
of New Paltz Town. “The precinct meetings were to be held at the house
of John Humphrey, Jr., on the first Tuesday of April, annually,” for the
election of officers. This house was at Little Britain.

In 1743, by an Act of Assembly for the better clearing and further
laying of public roads, Capt. Thomas Ellison, Capt. Alexander Coldon,
and Zacharias Hoffman, Jr., were appointed Comm.issioners. The roads
were to be four rods wide except through meadow and improved lands.
Each Commissioner received a sum not to exceed six shillings a day for
his care and trouble.

The Highlands precinct remained in existence until 1762, when it was

TOWN OF MARLBOROUGH.

289

divided into Newburgh and New Windsor “by a line beginning at the
mouth of Quassaick Creek and running thence along the south bounds of
a tract commonly called the “German patent,” to another tract granted
to Alexander Baird, and then along the southerly bounds of this tract
to the Wallkill precinct; all the lands in Highland, lying southward of
the dividing line to be called by the name of New Windsor, and all the
lands within the said Highland precinct, lying to the northward to be
called Newburgh.

The Act dividing Highland into Newburgh and New Windsor directed
that the first precinct meeting for Newburgh should be held at the house
of Capt. Jonathan Hasbrouck. This house is the present Washington
Headquarters at Newburgh. At this time the population was about
equally divided between the Newburgh precinct and the other two pre-
cincts. It all remained Ulster County until the Act of Assembly, April
5, 1798, when Newburgh and other towns were taken ofif.

These precincts did not take the names of towns until 1788. And in
1800 the Town of Plattekill was set ofif and Marlborough was left as it
is to-day. When the Law of 1813 was enacted, dividing the counties
into towns, the boundaries of Marlborough were stated as follows : —

“That part of the County of Ulster bounded easterly by the middle of
Hudson’s river, southerly by Orange County, westerly by a line begin-
ning on the line of the said County of Orange, two chains and seventy-five
links east of the north corner of a tract of land called the five patentees
from thence on a straight line northward to the most easterly bounds of
Robert Teft’s land where it joins the Town of New Paltz, and northerly
by a tract of land granted to Louis DuBois and his partners, called the
New Paltz patent, shall be and continue a town by the name of Marl-
borough.” The area is 14,300 acres.

EARLY PATENTS AND LAND GRANTS.

What is known as the Evans’ tract, mentioned elsewhere, formerly
embraced the whole territory of this town and much more. This was an
immense tract, granted by Governor Fletcher, of this Colony, to Capt.
John Evans.

There was a controversy during 1691, 1692, 1693, as to the right to
make a grant so large. On the accession of the Earl of Bellomont to
the governorship, he annulled the transaction, but his act was not ap-

290

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

proved by William III. The English government took up the matter in
1698, and the grant was annulled on May 12, 1699, the land reverting to
the crown. After that date it became the policy of the government to
make grants of land only to actual settlers, so far as possible.

Few of the old applicants for patents lived in Marlborough. Among
them Capt. Bond was probably the first. He came with his daughter,
Sukie or Susanna, and built a cabin in the vicinity of the Hicksite meet-
ing house. He was Deputy Surveyor in 1717, and the legend is that he
and his daughter were both buried near the site of the cabin. He had
many slaves, and kept up style for those times. There were seven tax-
payers in Marlborough in 1714 and 1715.

Francis Harrison was a resident in 1623. Part of the Harrison patent,
500 acres lying south of Marlborough, was purchased by Samuel and
Isaac Fowler, in 1647. Francis Harrison paid taxes in 1726. The Bond
patent near the center of the town is now a great fruit district.

Capt. William Bond was the first settler of that part of the town, now
known as Milton, of whom there is any authentic record. He appears
on the tax roll of 1714-15 as Capt. Bond, and on the succeeding tax rolls.
His patent appears to have covered the present site of the railroad depot,
the Milton dock property and the south part, if not all, of Milton Village

TOWN OF MARLBOROUGH IN THE REVOLUTION.

ELECTION OF DELEGATES TO THE PROVINCIAL CONVENTION.

At a meeting of the Committees of the several Towns and Precincts, in the
County of Ulster, to appoint Deputies, to serve in the Provincial Convention, at
the City of New York, on the 20th day of April, or at such other Time and Place
as may be agreed on, held at New Paltz in the County aforesaid, the 7th day of
April 1774. Col. Johannes Hardenburgh was chosen President, and Charles De-
Witt, George Clinton and Levy Paulding, Esquires, were elected Deputies to serve
in the Provincial Convention, for the purpose of choosing delegates, to represent
this Colony in General Congress, to meet at the City of Philadelphia, on the loth of
May next; with full power to declare the sense of this county relative to the
grievances under which His Majesty’s American Subjects labor, and of the meas-
ures pursuing and to be pursued for obtaining Redress, and to Join with the Depu-
ties for the other Counties and Cities, in this Colony at such Provincial Conven-
tion, in instruction to the delegates so as by them to be appointed, if they shall
deem it necessary.

Ordered that the same be signed by the President.

Johannes Hardenburgh.

ELECTION OF DEPUTIES TO THE PROVINCIAL CONGRESS FROM

ULSTER COUNTY.

At a meeting of the Committee of the Several Towns and Precincts in the County
of Ulster, held at New Paltz, at the house of Mrs. Ann DuBois in the County
aforesaid, the nth day of May 1775.

TOWN OF MARLBOROUGH.

291

The following appeared for the different towns and precincts:

For New Marlborough.

Lewis DuBois
Benjamin Carpenter, Esq.

Joseph Morey.

Charles D. Witt, Esq., was chosen chairman. Col. Johannes Hardenburgh, Col.
James Clinton, Egbert Dumond, Dr. Charles Clinton, Christopher Tappen, John
Nicholson and Jacob Hornbeck, Esquires, were chosen Deputies for the said County,
to serve in Provincial Convention at the City of New York, on the 22nd day of
May.

On the 29th of May, the Provincial Congress directed the Committee
holding the pledge to return the same before the 15th day of July, 1775,
with the names of the signers and those who refused to sign, which was
done. All who signed were avowed friends of the American Cause,
whose efforts and influence the Patriot leaders could depend upon, while
those who refused to sign were equally well known by all as the sup-
porters of the king and ministry. In 1775 there were 270 in the male
population of the town of sixteen years and upwards.

Lewis DuBois, born September 14, 1728, Captain 3rd N. Y., 28th of
June, 1775; Major, 25th of November, 1775; Colonel, 21st of June, 1776;
Colonel, 5th N. Y., 25th of November, 1776; to rank from 25th of June,
1776. Resigned 22nd of December, 1779. He served also as Colonel on
N. Y. levies. He died December 29, 1802. Some years after, when his
son’s house was burned, all his commissions and valuable papers were
lost.

It appears that Lewis DuBois, of the Precinct of New Marlborough,
was a Captain and William Martin a Lieutenant in the 4th Regiment of
the line in 1775, upon the Invasion of Canada.

On the 8th of January, 1776, the Continental Congress issued its first
formal call for troops, for the purpose of reinforcing the Army in Canada.
Under this call Ulster County furnished one Company, of which William
Martin, of New Marlborough, was Captain.

Capt. Lewis DuBois was promoted to Major in Canada, and on Febru-
ary 28, 1776, James Clinton was Colonel and Lewis DuBois, Major of
the 4th Regiment of the line while at the siege of Quebec.

Major or Colonel Lewis DuBois, who was a man of means and promi-
nence here, had many recruits from the precinct, and some were killed
in Canada, and at Forts Clinton and Montgomery. In October, 1777, the
brunt of the battle here fell upon DuBois and his regiment, and many
were killed.

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THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

By the town records of 1778, it appears that the precinct meeting
“voted that the donations collected in this Precinct be applied to such
poor, whose husbands or parents were either killed or taken prisoners at
Fort Montgomery, etc.”

A part of Colonel Cantine’s Regiment, the 3rd of the line, were from
this part of the country, but their names cannot be traced ; and others from
the town served in other regiments. William Woolsey was an Ensign in
1778 in Roswell Hopkin’s Regiment of Dutchess County.

It appears that Col. Lewis DuBois and Capt. William Martin were the
most prominent soldiers in the service from this town. They were both
with the army upon the invasion of Canada and the siege of Quebec, and
at other places where they took active part.

TORIES.

Josiah Lockwood was arrested for being unfriendly to the cause of
Liberty and gave a bond for 300 pounds, dated March 7th, 1777, Uriah
Drake as surety, to appear before a General Court Martial for trial.

There were several who opposed the colonies, some of whom returned
after the war, and were left unmolested, though their names were long
after used with contempt, and the rest took up their residence in Canada.

Samuel Devine, from the western part of the precinct, was very reck-
less in his conduct and conversation, and was arrested and tried twice
for being a Tory. He was released on the first charge, but on the second
he was court-martialed and sentenced to be hung, but was pardoned under
the gallows by Governor Clinton.

A few Tories joined the English Army, and, after the war, settled in
Canada, a bond was given by one who was suspected.

No part of the town was ever invaded by the enemy. When Brant
and his Indians massacred the soldiers, who went out. from Goshen to
meet him at Minisink on the Delaware, there was another scare, but it
soon subsided as Brant got no further. But our ancestors had their
troubles ; there was war and rumors of war all the time. They were taxed
to the limit; their property pressed in the service; many of their men
were in the service of the country, and much of their lands uncultivated.
But they were true and loyal and their rejoicing was great, at the favor-
able termination of the war.

There appears to have been no large tribe of Indians about here, and
no forts or camping places can be determined. The Esopus Indians, the

Charles Young.

TOWN OF MARLBOROUGH.

293

Wappingers, the Mohawks and other tribes, sometimes passed through in
small squads and camped about, as Indian clubs and arrow heads are
often found. A gentleman at Milton has quite a collection of stone-clubs
or pestels, which he has picked up on his farm; also a flint tomahawk
and several arrow heads. They undoubtedly at one time had a small
camp there, where they hunted and fished. But there is no tradition
about the Indians here, except that there was a small trail through this
town, from the back country to the river.

They must have been peaceable, at least, as there is no record they
ever injured any person or destroyed any property.

In 1776 there were seventeen persons licensed to keep taverns in the
town of Marlborough. The record for that year is given as follows : —

Peter Mackoon Thomas Mott ;

Robert Gilmore Edmund Turner, Jr. ;

Cerstophel Deyo Carlvian Lieger . * .

Samuel Drake Henry T. Bush, Jr.

Wright Carpenter Wheeler Case

Isaac Bloomer Jacob Powell

David Merritt Isaac Hill

Benjamin Carpenter Robert Simonds

John Benson

An enumeration of the people of the town in 1782 gave the following
results, not counting slaves or free persons of color : —

White Males under sixteen 491

“ Males over sixteen and under sixty 335

“ Males sixty and upwards 24

“ Females under sixteen 402

“ Females above sixteen 366

Total 1618

The water power of the various streams was utilized at an early date,
while it cannot be known definitely, it is thought that the site of the Old
DuBois Mill, near the Village of Marlborough, was one of the first, and
probably the first to be erected. Sawmills and gristmills were erected
by James Hallock, Foster Hallock, Auning Smith and others.

A carding-mill was erected in 1810 1811, and another shortly after-
ward. Most of the mills were on Jew’s Creek, Old Man’s Creek and
Hallock’s Creek, and the sawmills remained until the region tributary
was practically denuded of timber. During the first half of the nine-
teenth century there were numerous manufacturing establishments built.

Most of the old settlers came from Long Island and Westchester
County. They were people who were established in those places, having

294

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

their farms and property there. Some came up in sloops, and others
crossed in scows from the opposite side of the river. They brought
their families, their cattle and horses, and their worldly goods with them,
and when they arrived, they were all ready to erect their log or stone
houses and commence clearing the land, and after the first arrivals their
friends, who were already here, helped them. Perhaps no community
started with better or more favorable prospects. They did not come
destitute as a large body of foreigners have done, for in a short time
they could change their original abode and start life anew, with all their
household goods, properties, comforts and conveniences, that they had en-
joyed in their previous homes.

Old letters, papers and records show this. In fact, the same names can
be traced in the records and papers of Westchester and Long Island, and
spelled the same as our people then spelled their names. These people
visited together and kept up their relationship and friendship for a gen-
eration or more; and many of our people can trace their ancestors to
these places. A few settlers drifted in until 1740, or thereabouts, when
they commenced to arrive more frequently.

From that time on the population rapidly increased. In one year, twenty
or more families arrived. In 1782, the population was 1482. In 1790,
the enumeration of inhabitants, including Plattekill, colored people and
slaves, was 2,241 ; Newburgh having only 2,365. And this population was
supported by ordinary farm crops on stony land, which first had to be
cleared. There was no fruit to sell them. The families were large, having
from six to fifteen children. Edward Hallock, who landed his sloop and
his family at what is known as Grandfather’s Rock, at the river south of
the Bond Patent, had ten girls and two boys.

These were an honest, industrious people, law abiding and God-fearing.
No great crimes were committed. Churches and schools were plain but
plenty; almost as many schools were supported then as now. A chattel
mortgage was almost unknown. A person never borrowed money, ex-
cept under necessity, and then paid it as soon as possible. Notes scarcely
ever were taken. The borrower considered he was under a sacred ob-
ligation, and he often went without necessaries to make his payment.

Very few judgments were entered, but the execution went against the
body and the debtor was put in jail, if he did not pay. But people were
very lenient, and there was not much oppression. There were very few

TOWN OF MARLBOROUGH.

295

real estate mortgages on record before 1800. The debts must have
been fixed up in some other way. Until the Constitution of I777, the choice
of candidates at the Precinct meetings was determined by viva voce vote.

The entire patent of land, formerly granted to Augustine Graham and
Alexander Griggs, covers the railroad depot and docks, at the river and
the entire village of Marlborough, and all the valuable farms and lands
surrounding it; and this extensive and now valuable property, worth in
the neighborhood of $2,000,000, was obtained by Lewis DuBois without
the payment of a dollar. It seems that he was in possession, and living
upon these lands, at the time that the deed was given in 1763, and the
presumption is he had been there several years. He had undoubtedly
obtained the Ida Hoffman or the Jury Quick title, for that one undivided
one-half, and was living on the place under that title for years before
he got the above mentioned deed; for at the time he was interested in
various projects about the place and had agreed to give to the Marlbor-
ough Society two acres of land. On April 8th of the next year, he exe-
cuted a deed for the land to John Woolsey and Stephen Case, first Trus-
tees. He was the largest subscriber, giving 15 pounds on the first and 8
pounds on the last subscription list, so he must have been a man of means.
He had previously, though the year cannot be fixed, erected a large
house, substantially the same as it now stands, which was an expensive
house then, and which is now owned by John Rusk. It was all forest at
the time. The trees were cut down and hewn into timber, where the
house stands. It was one of the first frame houses in the country. Its
size and general appearance made quite a sensation, and people came
long distances to see it.

Richard Woolsey, born in Westchester County, 1697, came here when
a young man, married Sarah Fowler, and had twelve children.

Among the other families, who settled early in Marlborough, were the
Purdys, Wygants, Anning Smiths, Youngs, Merritts, Quimbys, Clarks,
Cropseys, Bloomers, Pembrakes, Conklins, and many others.

The town records give, in the road list of 1788, a practically complete
list of the male inhabitants over twenty-one years.

Another of the very early families was that of Joseph Carpenter, who
was born on Long Island about 1704 or 1705. He settled at Lattintown
at a very early date, and raised a large family of children, said to have
numbered eighteen sons and daughters. Their descendants are still nu-

296

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

merous in the country. Edward Hallock came to Marlborough from
Long Island in 1760, and engaged in farming and milling. His brother
Samuel came soon afterward, purchased 1,000 acres of land, near the
Village of Milton, and erected a house, which still stands. He left six
children and Edward left twelve. Many of their descendants still live
here. Leonard Smith, with five sons and two daughters, were Long
Island people, and settled here in 1762.

At a special Town meeting, held at the house of Robert Gilmore, in the
Town of Marlborough, the 8th day of March, 1800, the following notes
were by a majority entered into, viz.:

Voted that the Town of Marlborough be divided as follows (provided
the assent of the Legislature can be obtained for that purpose) : beginning
on the line between the Town of Newburgh and the Town of Marl-
borough, two chains and seventy-five links east of the northwest corner
of the five patentees, from thence northward on a straight line, to the
northeastern line of Robert Tifft’s land, where it joins the Town of New
Paltz. Voted also that the new town on the west side of the mountain
be called the Town of “Patteekiln” ; and the first town meeting to be held
at the house of Robert Gilmore. And the remainder of the town, on the
east side of the mountains, retain the present name of Marlborough, and
the first town meeting be held at the house of David Merritt, in
Lating Town. Voted that Joseph Morey, Esq., and Cornelius Drake be
appointed to carry a petition, and the proceedings of this meeting to
the Legislature, and to have twenty-four dollars for their services, to be
paid by the town.

THE WAR OF l8l2 AND THE MEXICAN WAR.

Both of these wars were very unpopular with the people of Marl-
borough. There were a few attempts to get up enthusiasm, but they
were dismal failures. Most of our people thought they were uncalled
for, and that they should have been avoided. A few may have drifted off
and enlisted, but no record can be found thereof. Certainly no one of
any prominence from here took part in either war.

Slavery existed in those days.

Slaves were bought and sold: the following is a specimen of a bill of
sale:

KNOW all men by these presents, that I Joseph Sherwood, of the Town of New-
burgh, County of Ulster and State of New York, for and in consideration of the
sum of twenty pounds of Current Lawful! money, to me in hand, paid by Josiah

TOWN OF MARLBOROUGH.

297

Merritt, of the Town of Marlborough, County and State aforesaid, HAVE granted,
bargained and sold by these Presents, DO grant bargain and sell unto the said
Josiah Merritt, one Negro Girl, named Syl, aged seventeen years. To have and to
hold the said Negro, unto the said Josiah Merritt and his Executors, Admin-
istrators and Assigns, for and during the Natural life of Her, the said Girl. And I
the said Joseph Sherwood, for myself, my Executors and Administrators and As-
signs against me, the said Joseph Sherwood, my Executors, Administrators and
Assigns, shall and will Warrant and Defend, by these Presents ; In witness whereof,
I have hereunto set my Hand and Seal, this twenty-eighth day of March, one
thousand seven hundred and ninety-three.

Joseph Sherwood, (L. S.)

The slaves generally took the name of their masters and were usually
kindly treated, but it appeared hard to punish anyone for killing his slave.
A man living at Lattintown, who owned a negro man slave, coming home
one day was met by his wife in great excitement and she said to him,
“Jim, that d — nigger has run away. Bring him back dead or alive.'’ So
Jim put a double-barreled shotgun in his wagon, and started on the back
road, toward Newburgh — the route his wife indicated the slave had gone.
He overtook the slave just below the limits of the town, near a small
graveyard, in the Cosman neighborhood. Jim called to the slave to stop,
but he ran across the graveyard, and Jim shot him. He put him in his
wagon, and took him, back dead to his wife, thus obeying her better than
most men do their wives.

He was arrested and taken for examination before a Justice of the
Peace, living where Washburn Baxter recently died. During the exam-
ination, he escaped and remained away some time, and that was the last
of it. The man’s name was James . He owned the place after-

ward owned by Sheriff Harcourt.

A slave-holder complained of being very poor. He said that his ‘'nig-
gers” raised a big crop of corn every year, but the corn was fed to the
hogs, and the niggers ate all the hogs, and he had nothing left.

With some of the slave holders, the slaves were thought much of and
treated almost as members of the families. An old man with a large
tract of land had among his slaves one called “Harry.” He was large and
a fine looking fellow, and dressed well, the leader of a company of colored
men, who formed a militia company and drilled as such. His old master
was proud of him, he always rode his owner’s big black stallion on such
occasions, and his master used to help him to get started. He was hold-
ing his horse on one occasion, and he handed his master a shilling, and
some one observed, “What did you do that for, Harry?” Harry replied.

298

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

“Ain’t that the way the white people do?” Afterward his master manu-
mitted him.

A company of cavalry was organized in 1804, under the command of
William Acker. It was composed of Marlborough and Newburgh men.
Nathaniel DuBois served several years as Captain. The last Captain
was Robert D. Mapes, of Marlborough. It was disbanded about 1838.
David W. Woolsey, of Marlborough, was commissioned as Captain, 1823,
by Joseph C. Yates, Governor, in the 14th Regiment of Infantry.

William Martin was a Captain of a company; and some other compa-
nies, or parts of companies, were organized in the town at different times.
In November, 1867, C. M. Woolsey was commissioned, and served as
Commissary, (ist Lieut.) of the 20th Regiment of N. Y. State Militia,
until the regiment was disbanded.

Horatio Gates Safford, LL.D., in a Gazetteer of the State, published in
1824, describes Marlborough as follows:

“Marlborough, a small Township in the southeast corner of Ulster
County, on the west shore of the Hudson opposite Barnegat, 23 miles
south of Kingston, bd, N. by New Paltz, E. by Hudson, S. by Newburgh
and County of Orange, W. by Plattekill. Its medial extent N. & S. is
about six miles and it may be three wide, its area about eighteen sq.
miles. The land is under general cultivation and it produces of all the
common agricultural products of the region. The inhabitants consist of
a larger proportion of English families than in most of the Towns of this
County.

The road of the Farmer’s Turnpike and Bridge Company terminates
in this town. There are a good many “Friends” in this Town, who have
a Meeting House, and there is also one for the Presbyterians.

There is a small Hamlet called Milton, a neighborhood called Lattin-
town, besides some river landings and places of business. The lands are
held by right of sale. Population, 2,248. Taxable property, $108,172.
Electors, 364. Acres of improved land, 9,436. 1,665 cattle. 424 horses.
2,092 'sheep, 10,887 yds. of cloth, made in families, 7 grist-mills, 5 saw-
mills, 2 fulling mills, 3 carding machines, i cotton and woolen factory and
I distillery. One of the stated places of monthly meeting.

TOWN OF MARBLETOWN.

299

TOWN OF MARLBOROUGH IN THE CIVIL WAR.

The following is a list of those who enlisted in the Army and Navy:

Army.

David M. Weed

James Anderson

James N. Whims

Sidney Barnhart

James B. Williams

Jacob Berrian

John Wordin

Reuben R. Bloomer

Isaac Fletcher Williams

Oscar B. Bloomer

Charles C. Wygant

James Bailey

John S. Wood

Walter M. Bailey

Chas. L. Woolsey

Chas. A. Bailey

C. M. Woolsey

Thomas Brown

William York

Patrick Conley

John H. Dingee

Jas. D. Cassidy

Wm. H. Duncan

Henry Cassidy

James C. Brewster

David C. Crossbary

James M. Benson

Geo. W. Detmar

R. F. Coutant

Daniel Davis

Cevonia Lounsbery

Ferris G. Davis

John Hendrickson

Benjamin C. V. DeWitt

Lewis Hornbeck

Peter E. DeWtt

Isaac N. Hornbeck

Geo. J. Fowler

Daniel B. Martin

Luther P. Halt

Hezekiah Martin

John Harding

John Margison

John Kenney

Elmore Terwilliger

Edward H. Ketcham

Wm. L. Dougherty

John T. Ketcham

Jesse E. Knapp

John McVay

Oliver Lawson

Wm. Miller

Geo. Duncan

Geo. H. Miller

Wm. Duncan

John McCarty

Isaac Sims

John H. Mackey
Charles Lee Mackey

Navy.

David F. Mackey

Cornelius Atherton

Nehemiah Mann

David Johnson

Morris Lee

Horace B. Sands

Wm. J. Purdy

John W. Williams

Peter V. L. Purdy

Martin Fisher

Alonzo S. Petit

Geo. W. Smith

Stephen J. Poyer

Henry Scott

Geo. W. Quimby

Isaac Lewis

John D. Quimby

Phineas H. Smith

Thos. Elliot

Isaac Theals

Chas. H. Free

Peter Terwilliger

Geo. Palmateer

Jeremiah Terwilliger

Stephen Rhodes

James Terwilliger

Geo. Ryer

Matthew Terwilliger

Reuben H. Rose

Danel Tuthill

Aaron Rhodes

Samuel Valentine

Theodore Rhodes

John H. Valentine

Walter Rhodes

The following were the Commissioned Officers: Nehemiah Mann,
Captain in the 4th N. Y. Cavalry. Killed at Cedarville, Virginia, August

300

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

1 8, 1864. John Ketcham, 2nd Lieut., 4th N. Y. Cavalry. Died in Libbey
Prison, October 8th, 1863. Edward Ketcham, 2nd Lieut., 120th N. Y.
Infantry. Killed at Gettysburg, July 2, 1863. William J. Purdy, 2nd
Lieut., in the 156th N. Y. Infantry. C. M. Woolsey, 2nd and ist Lieut,
and Brevetted Captain, in the 2nd N. Y. Cavalry, and 2nd Lieut., ist
Regiment U. S. C. Troops. Oliver Lawson, 2nd Lieut., ist Mounted
Rifles. There has been a post, called Ketcham Post, 495, G. A. R., De-
partment of N. Y., in the town for many years, organized August, 1884.
C. M. Woolsey was first Commander ; P. V. L. Purdy and H. B. Crowell
have also been Commanders. C. M. Woolsey is the present Commander.
Out of the whole number, who enlisted as above named, not more than
twenty are alive and in the town.

Among the men of special prominence, which Marlborough produced,
or who were identified with the interests of the town, were :

Ebenezer Foot,

Selah Tuthill,
Nehemiah L. Smith,
David Staples,
Abram D. Soper,

Member of Assembly, 1792,
1804.

1794, 1796, 1797.

William Soper, “

L. Harrson Smith, “

Jeremiah Clark, “

C. M. Woolsey,

E. F. Patten, “

Sands, Haviland, “

Benjamin Harcourt, Sheriff, 1832.

1811.

1814, 1818.

1829. Also County Judge from 1828 to
1836.

1843.

1853.

i860.

1871, 1872, and Justice of Session, 1866,
1867.

1881.

1901.

On April 5th, 1764, Lewis DuBois conveyed to John Woolsey and
Stephen Case, two acres of land, but the Society, thinking that one and
one-half acres was sufficient, reconveyed half an acre to the donor. In
the old burying ground attached to the church, are buried many of the
first settlers.

Marlborough now has many factories and stores, four churches, a
large graded school, and three taverns. It has recently been incorpo-
rated and Frank L. Snyder is its President, It has a system of water-
works and electric lights. Population about 800. It is a flourishing
village and a desirable place of residence.

Date of

Postmasters. Appointment.

Marlborough. Daniel G. Russell July 13, 1824.

“ !Milcs J. Fletcher April 14, 1826.

Robert B. Mapes Aug. 12, 1841.

TOWN OF MARBLETOWN.

301

Postmasters. — Continued.

“ Miles J. Fletcher June 7, 1843.

“ James S. Knapp April 10, 1856.

“ Charles D. Jackson April 8, 1861.

“ Dallas DuBois Aug. 20, 1866.

“ John H. Baxter Aug. 4, 1869.

“ John C. Merritt April i, 1875.

“ Martin V. B. Morgan Aug. 5, 1885.

“ H. Scott Corwin (not commissioned) FeE 28, 1889.

“ Charles H. Kniffen May 3, 1889.

“ Wiliam S. Wright Aug. 3, 1893.

“ Charles H. Kniffen Feb. 15, 1899.

“ Charles I. Purdy Feb. 26, 1903.

“ James A. Johnston i Apr. 19, 1904.

Milton was so named previous to the Revolution. The name is found
in an old record of the earlier Methodist Society. “In October, 1788,
Rev. Ezekiel Cooper held the first Methodist meeting in the County, at
the house of John Woolsey.” Milton had good water-power, and saw
and grist-mills were soon built. There has been a steady growth of popu-
lation. It was very flourishing from 1820 to 1850. A turnpike was built
about 1820, and a large tract of country to the west had its outlet here

David Sands carried on a large ship yard. There was a pin factory,
soap factory and two hat factories at one time, and a paper called the
National Pioneer, was printed here in 1829, edited by Daniel S. Tuthill,
or as he was generally called, Selah Tuthill, a son of Selah Tuthill, the
Member of Congress. The Pioneer was issued every Wednesday, at
$2.00 per annum, “payable quarterly, or $2.50 at the end of the year.”
This price was for village subscribers, and those who got their paper
through the post rider. There were four pages of six columns each.

From the advertising columns of the Pioneer, more is to be learned
about Milton than from the reading matter. Advertisements appear from
David Brower, tailor, in Milton Village; Anson St. John, manufacturer
of cabinet ware and fancy chairs, also painter; C. S. Roe, general store-
keeper, agent for threshing machines, real estate agent, dealer in rye,
oats and corn, and owner of a tow boat ; Mrs. M. B. Taylor, milliner, of
Marlborough; Chas. Field, hat manufacturer; Longbottom & Co., an-
nouncing the retirement of James Kinworthy; and many others of more
or less interest. From one of these, we learn that the proprietor of the
paper, D. S. Tuthill, also kept a store at New Paltz landing, (Highland).
Here he sold goods “at reduced prices,” just as the moderif merchants do.

Daniel S. Tuthill, or Selah Tuthill, as he was commonly called, was a
man of considerable ability and business enterprise.

302

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

From the files of the Pioneer, we learn that Cornelius Polhemus kept
a public house in Marlborough in 1830.

Cornwall S. Roe was one of the most prominent men in Milton, in 1830,
if his advertisements in the Pioneer prove anything. In one copy of the
paper he had no less than sixteen advertisements of various kinds. He
kept a general store, where he sold dry goods, groceries, crockery, hard-
ware, lumber, tar, plaster, salt, fish, pork, etc. He bought grain and flax-
seed at ‘‘highest cash prices,” and purchased patent rights for agricultural
machinery. He also speculated in land. In one place he advertises, that
the ladies of Ulster County can be supplied with Navarino Hats, either
in the flat or made up, in the newest manner at short notice. In another
place behold: “The Tow boat Atlanta, Capt. C. S. Roe, now performs
her passage with all regular speed; and to meet the economical views of
all, passengers are taken at the low rate of four shillings, who And them-
selves:— Six shillings and found. She arrives both ways before day-
light.” C. S. Roe. Milton, April 7, 1830.

There was a ferry at Milton called Lattimer’s Ferry from the old
stone house across the river. This was in operation during the Revolu-
tion and for many years afterward; it was said that during the war,
regular communication was kept up between the Patriots of Boston and
the forces in the Highlands and New Jersey. Money to pay the troops
and valuables were carried by this ferry. The old stone house was a
short distance south of where the railroad depot now is, and it was torn
down when the railroad was built.

Jacob Powell and his son kept store there, and ran a line of sloops to
New York about the year 1800. In 1795, they took out license for a
tavern. Farmers took their produce there for shipment, and bought their
goods. The same business was carried on there for many years after. At
the road running down to it, at Northrop’s corner, there was a black-
smith’s shop, a store, a church and a house. Jacob Wood and Philip
Caverly had a shipyard at the foot of Dog’s street (lane), and built
sloops and vessels. David Sands had a yard at Sand’s Dock, and built
vessels and kept store there. About 1850, Geo. Hallock had a brick yard.
The clay was taken from his pond. From that time and for many years,
Jacob Handley ran a horse-boat across the river.

There are five churches, several factories and mills, and stores at Mil-
ton. Population, about 800. It has always been a favorite landing place

TOWN OF MARLBOROUGH.

303

for steamboats and has enjoyed greater benefits and conveniences from
them than any of the adjoining villages.

The first Town meeting was held here, in 1840, at the house of Robert
S. Lockwood.

Lattintown, formerly “Latting Town,’’ the oldest neighborhood or
hamlet, is so called in the early records of the War of Independence, and
prior to that time, just about 1740 or soon afterward, there being several
families. of Latting living there at that time. The first Town meeting,
1772, was held at the house of Henry Deyo, and the next, 1773, at the
house of Richard Carpenter, both of whom are supposed to have lived at
Latting Town. From that time up to and including 1779, the meetings
were held at Silas Purdy’s, which was the Henry E. Geade place.

Date of

Postmasters. Appointment

Milton. Abraham D. Soper Aug. 20, 1822.

“ Wiliam Soper Apr. 2, 1836.

“ Nancy Soper Jan. 19, 1849.

“ Calvin F. Bulkley ‘...Dec. 4, 1849.

“ David Sands, Jr July 20, 1853.

“ Peter M. Carpenter May 26, 1854.

“ Theodore Quick Apr. 8, 1861.

“ Ethan Parrott Jan. 12, 1866.

“ Roswell H. Stone Feb. 15, 1869.

“ Jacob Rowley Nov. 12, 1869.

“ Ethan Parrott Nov. 22, 1869.

“ Edward W. Carhart Feb. 23, 1882.

“ Edward W. Pitcher Mar. 25, 1884.

“ Frederick H. Smith June 12, 188C

“ William H. Townsend, Jr May 24, 1889.

“ Frederick H. Smith ....Aug. 23, 1893.

“ C. Meech Woolsey Aug. 28, 1897.

“ Frederick W. Woolsey Aug. 8, 1902.

Purdy had a mill there and kept a tavern. He also kept the stocks, in
which persons were put to be punished, and kept the pound where stray
cattle were kept. Purdy was an officer in the War, and one of the Com-
mittee of Safety and Defence. Plis place was virtually a part of the
Lattintown valley.

In 1780, and for the next fifty-eight years up to and including 1838,
meetings were held at Lattintown except the year 1801, when the Town
meeting was held at Nathaniel Harcourt’s, which was the place owned
by Jesse Lyons on the post road. And in 1841, 1849, 1852, the meetings
were held at Lattintown, which were the last. For twenty years the
meetings were at David Merritt’s house, seven years at John Hait’s, ten
years at Thomas Warren’s and other houses in Lattintown. It was a

304

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

great place for racing horses on Town meeting day. The Militia had their
trainings there, Courts were held, and there much of the town business
was transacted in those times. It was the center of population for many
years. The smooth country and fertility of the lands, which were well
watered, invited the early settlers. Large tracts of land were cleared and
well cultivated, while the more stony and rugged lands between that and
the river were mostly forests. The oldest graveyard in the Town was
there, in which the first settlers were buried. This was situated on what
is now the Odell place, on the grounds now occupied by his barn and
orchard. At Lattingtown there was also a school, church, stores, wagon
and blacksmith shops, a tannery and distillery in early times. There were
also a shoemaker, tailor and undertaker. All of these except the school
have ceased to exist.

THE PEOPLE, LANDS, AND CONDITIONS OF THE TOWN.

We have seen that most of the original families had previously set-
tled in this Country. They were descended mostly from English and
Holland families who had lived in England some time before they came
to America, but the tide of foreign emigration did not set in until about
1850. Some had come in from time to time, but since 1850 the emigration
has been rapid, mostly from Ireland, though many German families have
settled here. They have generally been an agriculturist class, being
small farmers in their own country. They were good people — honest and
industrious. They accumulated means, bought farms, raised large fami-
lies, and were honored and respected. Many of our best and more enter-
prising people have descended from these emigrants.

The Irish people have erected and supported two large and flourishing
Catholic churches, with parsonages, separate priests, and a large and fine
cemetery. Most of the emigration is now from Italy. Many families
arrive each year and buy the smaller and cheaper places. They are
frugal and industrious, and consider a debt a sacred obligation and pay
promptly.

The water courses of the town are confined to a few small streams
emptying into the Hudson; in former times they had a larger flow of
water, and afforded power for many mills and factories, and they also had
many trout. There are several small attractive lakes and ponds. The
surface is broken and hilly, rising from the bluff at the river to the Marl-

TOWN OF MARLBOROUGH.

305

borough Mountains, a rocky ridge along the west bounds, an elevation of
about a thousand feet above tide.

The soil is a dark rich loam or clay and admirably adapted to general
agriculture and grazing. In fact, before the advent of fruit, a large
population was supported prosperously on the farm crops they raised.
But during the past forty or fifty years the lands to a great extent have
been given up to the raising of fruits which grow in great abundance
and are generally profitable. There are many large vineyards, and straw-
berries, raspberries, blackberries and currants have shown enormous
yields. Large quantities of peaches are also raised. The farms have
been cut up in small tracts of five acres and upwards, upon which fami-
lies live and prosper. The soil stands dry weather well. With proper
cultivation, fertilizing and attention the yield is very large. From 100 to
200 bushels of berries to the acre are generally raised.

The great hotels of New York City, Philadelphia, Boston and Mon-
treal are furnished with peaches and other fruit direct from here. In
fact, no better peaches are raised in the world, and the price for first-class
fruit is always high. The gross receipts of some of the fruit growers
here are from $10,000 to $20,000 a year. Large sums are paid out for
working and picking the crop, and any man, woman or child can find ready
employment at good wages. There are 1,000 extra people who come here
to help during the packing season. Though none of our people grow
rich, yet many keep town and city places, and spend their winters in
Europe or in the south. Over half a million dollars worth of fruit is
shipped or sold from here every year.

Lands are now selling readily, and advancing in price. The yield of
most varieties of fruits has been large this year and the prices good,
especially grapes, which have not been so high for years. They raised in
value from the commencement of the picking, and the last of the crop
sold as high as $65 a ton.

The increase in population has been remarkable. The population in
1865 was 2,733; 1900 it was 3,978, showing a larger percentage of

increase than the city of Kingston or any of the towns, except Rosendale,
and this while most of the towns have stood still or lost in population.

3o6

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

CHAPTER XXIV.
TOWN OF NEW PALTZ.
By Hon. John N. Vanderlyn.

ONE of the most interesting of the original settlements in Ulster
County, or elsewhere, is the Huguenot Settlement of New
Paltz. The land on which these Frenchmen and their families
settled was not patented to them as trustees, for the benefit of the whole,
but to a copartnership of the twelve individuals for their personal use.
either as a body corporate or subject to division, presumably in twelve
equal shares.

The settlement was one of the earliest after that of Kingston and Hur-
ley, but it is generally supposed that some of the patentees had settled
there some years previous to the date of the patent. The following docu-
ments, which are still extant, show the purchase from the Indians, and the
subsequent confirmation by the patent. (The manuscript is in Dutch.) : —

“By approbation of his Excellency, Governor Edmund Andross, dated April 28,
1677, an agreement is made on this date, the 26th of May, of the year 1677, for the
purchase of certain lands between the parties named herein and the undersigned
Esopus Indians,

“Matsayay, Nekahakaway, Magakahas, Assimerakan, Wawawanis, acknowledge
to have sold to Lowies du Booys and his partners the land described as follows : —
“Beginning from the high hills at a place called Moggonck, from thence south-
east toward the river to a point named Juffrous Hoock, lying in the long reach,
named by the Indians Magaatramis, then north up along the river to the Island
called by the Indians Raphoes, then west toward the high hills to a place called
Waratahaes and Tawentagui, along the high hills southwest to Moggonck, being
described by the four corners with everything included within these boundaries,
hills, dales, waters, etc,, and a right of way to the Rouduyt Kill as directly as it
can be found, and also that the Indians shall have the same right to hunt and fish
as the Christians, for which land the Indians have agreed to accept the articles
here specified: —

“40 kettles, 10 large and 30 small ; 40 axes ; 40 shirts ; 400 fathoms of white net-
work; 300 fathoms of black net-work; 60 pairs of stockings, half small sizes; 100
bars of lead ; i keg of gunpowder ; 100 knives ; 4 kegs of wine ; 40 oars ; 40 pieces
of “duffel” (heavy woolen cloth); 60 blankets; 100 needles; 100 awls; i measure
of tobacco; 2 horses — one stallion and one mare,

“Parties on both sides acknowledge to be fully satisfied herewith, and have affixed
their own signature ad ut Supra.

“Matsaya X (his mark) “Andrie Lefeber

“Waehtonck X (his mark) “Jan Broecq

“Seneraken X (his mark) “Piere Doyo

“Magakahoos X (his mark) “Anthony Crespel

John N. Vanderlyn.

TOWN OF NEW PALTZ.

307

“Wawateanis X (his mark))
“Lowies Du Booys
“Christian de Yoo X (his mark)
“Abraham Haesbroecq
“Witnesses :

“Jan Eltinge,

“Jacomeyritje Sleght,

“Jan Mattyse,

“Agrees

“Abraham Du Booys
“Hugo Freer
“Isaack D. Boojs
“Symon Lefeber

the original,

“W. La. Montague, Secry.

“I do allow of the within Bargaine and shall grant patents for Same when pay-
ments made accordingly before me or Magistrates of Esopus.

“Andross.

“We, the undersigned persons, former owners of the land sold to Lowies Du
Booys and his partners, acknowledge to have been fully satisfied by them according
to agreement, we therefore transfer the designated land with a free right of way
for them and their heirs, and relinguishing forever our right of way and title, will
protect them against further claims, in token whereof we have affixed our signa-
tures in the presence of the Justice, Sheriff, Magistrates, and Bystanders, on the
15th of September, 1677, at Hurley, Esopus Sackmakers.

“Witnesses :

“Sewakuny X (his mark)

“Hamerwack X (his mark)

“Manvest X (his mark)

“Papoehkies X (his mark)

“Haroman X (his mark)

“Pagotamin X (his mark)

“Mahente,

“Pochguget X (his mark)

“Pagotarnin X (his mark)

“Harommi X (his mark)

“Wingatiek X (his mark)

“Wissinahkau X (his mark)
“Mattawessick X (his mark)

“Matsayay X (his mark)

“Asserwvaka X (his mark)

“Umtronok X (his mark)

“Wamanies X sister in his absence
called Warawenhtow
“Magakhoos X (her mark)

“Mattay has publicly proclaimed and
Indian bystanders that the land has beer

Wewajask X (his mark)

“Nawas X (his mark)

“Tomaehkapray X (his mark)
“Sagarowauto X (his mark)
“Machkamoeke X (his mark)

Witnesses :

“Jan Eltinge;

“Roelof Henderycks;

“John Ward;

“Gars X Harris;

“Albert Jansen;

“Testis :

“Thomas Chambers, Hall, Sherriffe;
“Wessel Ten Broeck,

“Dirk Schepmoes,

“Hendrick Jochensen,

“Joost de Yaduo,

“Garit X Coonelise*

“Lambert X Hybertse,
acknowledged in the presence of all the
fully paid for, in which all concurred.”
“Testis: W. Montague, Seer,”

The grant by Governor Andross, dated the 29th of September, 1677, is
given in the fuller and perhaps more legal verbiage and covers the same
ground; in naming the partners, however, the name Laurens Bevier is
added, making the twelve patentees. When the purchasers applied to
Governor Andross for liberty to settle on their land, he coupled his per-
mission with the provision that they must “build a Redoute there first for
a place of Retreat and a Safeguard upon occasion.”

3o8

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

There are different views concerning the beginning of the settlement.
By some it is stated that one or more of the patentees had squatted on
portions of the land some years previously, and becoming nervous through
practical isolation, the syndicate was formed to purchase the ground,
amounting approximately to 36,000 acres, and erect a settlement; by
others it is alleged that there were no habitations on the tract, and that
the patentees and their families, with the exception of Crespel, journeyed
up the Wallkill from Kingston in three carts, till they decided upon the
place of location. As there seems to be no documentary support to either
suggestion, both being founded on the legends in which the neighbor-
hood richly abounds, the reader must take his choice.

It is a matter of record that more land was desired later. On February
13, 1683, the Special Session Court, held at Kingston, granted permission
to buy land of the Indians westward to New Fort. For some reason the
purchase was never completed. Three of the patentees, Louis, Abra-
ham and Isaac DuBois, were the father and two sons; the younger,
Isaac, being but eighteen years old; the two Deyos or Doys were
father and son; the two Lefevers were brothers, as were also the
Hasbrocs, though Jan or Jean had left off the first syllable of his
name, calling himself Broec. Abraham DuBois, the two Hasbrouck
brothers and Simon Lefever had married the four handsome daughters
of Christian Deyo, so that the whole company were united either by ties
of blood or marriage, with the exception of Hugo Freer. Anthony Crespel
did not settle in New Paltz, but sold his share in 1699 to Louis Bevier. It
is proper to reproduce this conveyance in full, as it is the first recorded
sale of land in the patented tract, and while there seems to have been a
division of the land there is no record of the fact, ^uch were the condi-
tions that a century later, after the War of the Revolution, a special act
of the New York legislature was required to clear the ancient titles and
confirm the legality of the acts of the patentees and their descendants.
The deed translated is as follows : —

“Personally appeared Anthony Crespel, a laborer living at Hurley, County of
Ulster, who declares and confesses to have sold, ceded, released, conveyed, and by
these presents sells, releases and conveys to Louis Bevier, a laborer living at New
Palle, a certain piece of land in a thicket adjoining the said Village of Palle mak-
ing one of the twelve parts according to the partition by the proprietors of said
Palle. This said part is bounded by the pasture of Abraham DuBois and by Louis
Bevier on one side, on the south it bounds on the Washmaker’s land and on the
other side at the north on the heirs of Simon Lefebre. And I, the said Crespel,
promise to have the said Bevier enjoy and hold thereof without trouble or hinder-

TOWN OF NEW PALTZ.

309

ance; and the said sale has been made upon payment of 140 schepels of wheat which
I the said Crespel have received to my satisfaction, and absolve thereof the said
Bevier and all others.

“In testimony whereof I have signed this.

“Done at Quinstown this loth day of April 1699.

“Antoine Crespel”

“Jean Cottin
“Jaque DuBoois
Witnesses.”

The first transfer of land of which any record is known, was a deed of
gift of a cottage and lot to Jean Cottin, a schoolmaster of New Paltz.
This deed, in addition to conveying the real estate, gives Cottin the right
to cut wood for building and gives pasturage for two cows and calves, a
mare and a colt; it reserves the right to discharge him as schoolmaster
when they think “proper and fit,” and requests him not to sell the property
to anyone not of good life and manners. This record has a dual valua-
tion, showing that at that early date the cause of education was of para-
mount importance, and hardly less so that of so controlling the property
as to prevent the influx of undesirable neighbors.

There are a large number of documents concerning the early history of
New Paltz in various collections held by some of the descendants of the
original settlers. It is shown that for about forty years the prevailing lan-
guage was French, then for nearly seventy years the Dutch language, or
the Dutch and French together, were used; so that it was not until the
War of the Revolution that the English language became in general use.
It had been taught in the schools, however, for some time previous.

The original dwellings were built of logs, some of them large and com-
fortable for large families, others of smaller size. They gave way, grad-
ually, after twenty or thirty years, to stone structures of some pretension,
several of which are still standing, and occupied by descendants of the
original Syndicate of Patentees.

The antecedent history of the Huguenots has been written in extenso.
The persecutions which they suffered on account of their apostasy from
the Roman Church, have been written in the blood of thousands and
the expatriation of hundreds of thousands. The particular company which
came to Nev/ Netherland — later New York — seems to have been com-
posed of those who, for some years had been refugees in the Palatinate on
the Rhine. One work on this subject associates DuBois with the Lefevers,
Hasbroucks, Crespels, etc., at Manheim.

Anthony Crespel and Louis DuBois were sons-in-law of Matthew

310

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

Blanchan. Crespel came to America in 1660, Blanchan and DuBois the
year following. They settled in Hurley, and at the burning of that town
in 1663 by the Indians the wife and two children of Louis DuBois, the
wife and one child of Anthony Crespel, and the two children of Matthew
Blanchan, Jr., were carried into captivity, where they remained for three
months, until rescued by the military force under Captain Kregier.

The LeFever brothers came to Kingston in 1665. Jean Hasbrouck,
with his wife and two unmarried daughters, came in 1673. The wife was
the daughter of Christian Deyo. Abraham Hasbrouck came in 1675.
Louis Bevier, who later purchased Crespel’s share in the New Paltz, came
in 1673, with his wife and sons, Hugo, Abraham and Isaac. Bevier was a
cousin of the Hasbrouck brothers. Later came Christian Deyo, with his
three daughters who afterward married Abraham Hasbrouck, Simon
LeFever and Abraham DuBois. Also came Pierre Deyo, son of Christian,
with his wife and child. Abraham Hasbrouck is said to have served with
Governor Andross in the English army, and his influence in getting the
patent is mentioned.

Ralph LeFever, in his history of New Paltz (1903) comments on the
delay of four months between the date of the original agreement with the
Indians, May 26, 1677, and the issuance of the patent, September 29, 1677,
but the translations of documents in the same volume shows that there
could have been no such delay, from such cause. Governor Andross had
endorsed the contract of purchase with his approval, and directed a patent
to issue on payment of the terms before him or the Magistrates of Esopus.
By the date of this document this was not done until September 15, 1677,
and the patent was issued two weeks afterward. It is, of course, possible
that payment had been previously made, but the acknowledgement of the
same before the Esopus Court was a necessary provision.

The dates of the death of some of the patentees of New Paltz are
known, but of others no record is known to exist. Isaac DuBois died
at the age of 31, in 1690. Louis DuBois, who had moved to Kingston in
1686, became one of the Judges of the County and died there in 1696.
The only grave of the original pioneers marked by a stone in the New
Paltz churchyard bears this inscription : —

“1731, A. D. Bois, surviver of 12 patentees.”

Jean Cottin, the first teacher of the New Paltz school, was succeeded
about 1696 by Jean Tebenin, who remained four years and received a

TOWN OF NEW PALTZ.

31 1

recommendation in 1700. Cottin went into business in Kingston, and later
married the widow of Louis Du Bois. Neither Cotton nor Tebenin left
descendants. Cottin willed his property to the church at Kingston,
and Tebenin bequeathed his belongings to the church at New Paltz.
The church at New Paltz was organized in 1683. According to the old
French record which is still preserved, “Mr. Peter Daillie, Minister of the
Word of God, arrived at New Paltz and preached twice the Sunday fol-
lowing, and proposed to the heads of the families to choose by a majority
of the votes of the fathers of the families an Elder and a Deacon, which
they did, and chose Louis Du Bois for Elder and Hugh Frere for Deacon
to aid the minister in the management of the church, meeting at Paltz, who
were then confirmed to the charge of Elder and Deacon. The present
minute has been made to put in order the things which appertain to the
church.

The extract is dated January 22, 1683.

The record extends to 1702 and several dif¥erent handwritings are
found. It is mostly a record of marriages and baptisms. The last men-
tion of Rev. Mr. Daillie appears in 1692, and the first mention of Reverend
Mr. Bourepos in May, 1696.

Gradually as the years passed, the French and the Dutch began to blend.
None of the Patentees had Dutch wives; of their children there were
several. Solomon Du Bois, son of Louis, married Tryntje Gerriteen some
time about 1690. In the latter part of the same decade Mary Deyo
married Jacob Clearwater. Abraham Deyo married Elsie Clearwater in
1702. In 1703 Sarah DuBois married Roelif Eltinge. Jacob Freer
married Aide Van Weyen in 1705 ; Hendricus Deyo married Margaret
Van Bummell, in 1715. In 1706 Jqseph Hasbrouck married Elsie Schoon-
maker and in 1721 Solomon Hasbrouck married Sarah Van Wagenen.
Some others who lived outside the Paltz also married into Dutch families.

In the third generation the young people seemed inclined to marry more
diversely. Johannes Hardenbergh, Jr., a German, married into the
LeFever family as did also Jacob Hoffman, a Swede. Elias Ean or Un,
whose nationality is not disclosed, married Elizabeth Crespell, the
daughter of Anthony Crespell, and settled four miles north of the village
on a farm. The farm is still in the possession of their descendants.

When the split came in the church in 1766, the dividing line between the
races seems to be shown in the names of those adhering to the beliefs of

312

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

the two parties. The seceding faction built a new church, but when the
matter was settled all came together again in harmony.

There were other elements of intermixture among the surrounding
families. The Brodheads were English; the Hardenberghs came from
Germany, and the Terpenings and Ronks from Flanders ; the Auchmoodys
were Scotch; the Bruynes Norwegian, and the Wurts and Goetcheons
families were of Swiss descent. All this tended to a change in the lan-
guage, first to the Dutch, which was predominant outside the settlement
itself, and then, gradually to English, which was the official language, and
which it was necessary to teach in the schools.

There were several grants of land outside the original patent, secured
by the patentees and the descendants, and consideration of the original
grant has been separated for the erection or enlargement of other towns.
Thousands of the descendants of the original families went into other
counties and States, but it is probably a fact that nowhere else in the
United States does the population consist so largely of the direct de-
scendants of the original settlers, who occupy and cultivate the same land
as did their ancestors two and a quarter centuries ago.

In 1728, fifty years after the original settlement, the list of freeholders
shows but few changes of names from those of the original twelve.

In 1738, the foot company of militia gives a fair indication of the
strength of the settlement, as every able-bodied man between the ages of
sixteen and sixty were supposed to be enrolled, and the age limits were
elastic in cases of able-bodied persons over or under age.

Following is the militia company :

Captain Zacharias Hoffman
Lieutenant Benjamin Smedes, Jr.
Ensign Zacharias Hoffman, Jr.
Sergeants; John Teerpenning

John Freer
Evert Terwillige

Corporals : Christian Duio

Hendrick Duio
Isaac Lefever.

Privates.

Isaac Freer
Jan Une
James Agmodi
Petrus Low
Josia Filing
Cornelius Dubois
Hendr. Dubois
Agustus Van Dermerke

Abra. Bovier
Isaac Bovier
Mathues Bovier
Benj. Hasbroeck
Isaac Lefever, Jr.
Huge Freer, Jr.
Abrm. Vandermerke
William Armstrong

Frank J. LeFevre.

TOWN OF NEW PALTZ.

313

Privates. — Continued.

James Dimmick

Mathew Jong

Manewel ter Willige

Robert Hanne

Hendrick Decker

John Jemson

Thomas Janson, Jr.

Gerrett Ja. Decker

Tuenis Terpening

John Robertse

Jonas Freer ,

1 Rober Guames

Simon Lefever

James Jonston

Johannis Low

Samuel Sampson

Abm. Duio

Richard Davis

Jacob Ge Decker

Tomas Macconn

Daniel Winfiel

' Arie Terwillige

Johannes Terwillige

Cornelius Bruyn

Petrus Terwillige

Abr. Ja. Decker

William Rosekraus

Isaac Ja. Decker

Josua Smedes

Abr. He. Decker

Stevanis Swart

Isaac Terwillige

Andrew Grames

Cornu. Schoonmaker, Jr.

John Blake

Johannis Cool

Solomon Isrel

John Gream

Roger Blamles

Hendrick Weller

Lawrence Eldorp

Jacob Hasbroeck, Jr.

John Andrew

Zacharias Klarwater

William Short

Abr. Lefever

Jacob Ja Decker

Jacobus Bovier

William Ja Decker

Nathaniel Lefever

Benj. Ja Decker

Symon Dubois

Abr. Terwillige

Peter Duio

Evert Terwillige, Jr.

Hendrick Van Wiiak

Corns. Cool

Lewis Sa. Bovier

Louis Pontenere

Robert Jong

William Weller

Robert Cain

Isaac Hasbroeck

John Magdonel

Benj. Hasbroeck, Jr.

Johannes Wasseker

The New Paltz Government was the most simple on earth. All there
was to it, was for the heads of the families to get together and make
regulations and decisions. These do not seem to have been numerous or
important, as there are no records of them left. There are reasons for sup-
posing that originally the lands were worked in common, then for a time
in severalty, by selection and agreement, and later by a division.

What are known as the Huguenot Papers, which were preserved for a
century or more in the Huguenot Bank, and since removed to the Town
Clerk’s office, give much information along these lines. Among these is
a document called “New Paltz Orders,” which are recorded by W. Not-
tingham, Clerk. The orders pertain to the building of line fences, char-
acter of fences, times when animals may run free, and when they must be
enclosed, fines for violations, and many other matters. The meeting at
which these orders were made was held February 23, 1712.

In 1728 the “Dusine” or “Twelve Men” was organized. These were

314

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

to be chosen annually, and they exercised absolute legislative, judicial
and executive powers. Twice during the existence of the ‘'Twelve Men”
there were divisions of property, made necessary by the increase in popu-
lation, but there is no record of an appeal from their decision to the
Colonial Courts. This organization continued until after the War of the
Revolution, an act incorporating New Paltz being passed in 1785.

The document establishing the “Twelve Men” is among the papers
preserved, and it bears the signature of the twenty-four owners of prop-
erty within the Paltz patent, with the recording acknowledgment of
Ulster County, signed by D. Wynkoop, Jr., who was apparently County
Clerk or Recorder at the time.

Town officers were elected by popular vote at town meeting.

Among the papers are the names of those who signed an agreement
of similar import on May 23, 1744. The names indicate that they are
members of the same families as the freeholders of 1728, but some of them
were evidently a younger generation who had come of age and inherited
property. The agreement was a pact to mutually contribute whatever
money might be necessary to protect the patent, according to his or her
share in the whole. This was to continue for fifteen years.

The agreement of April 30, 1774, bears signatures and seals of the
following persons with their shares in the patent duly agreed to : —

Daniel LeFevre 1/64
Jacob Loun 1/468
Andres LeFevre, Jr. 1/43
Abraham Donaldson 11/360
David Auchmoudy 1/300
Josaphat Hasbrouck 1/120
Margrietye Bovier 1/229
Jonas Freer 5/234
Benjamin DuBois 31/720
Benjamin Flasbrouck 1/120
Isaac Hasbrouck 1/120
Simeon Loun 1/468
Zacharias Hasbrouck 1/120
Johannis Bevier, Jr. 1/210
Benjamin DuBois 1/210
Benjamin Doyo 1/80
Nathaniel LeFevre 1 1/240
Cornelius L. Brink 1/270
David Bevier 1/120
Anthony Yolverton 1/32
Mickel Devoe 1/216
Andr. Bevier 1/105
Jonas Hasbrouck 1/420
Benjamin Freer i/ioo

Jacobus Hasbrouck 1/80
Petrus Hasbrouck 1/40
Huge Freer 1/65
Isaac LeFevre 1/64
Johannis Bevier 1/270
Peter Bevier 1/270
Johannis Freer, Jr., 1/94
Gerrit Freer, Jr., 1/174
Abraham Ein 1/36
Mathieu LeFevre 1/37
Petres LeFevre 1/50
Jacob Hasbrouck, Jr,, 3/40
Christeyan Dooyo 1/400
Solomon Bovier 1/540
Samuel Bevier 1/810
Elias Bevier 1/8 10
Abraham LeFevre 1/270
John Terwillige 1/234
Sophia Eltinge 11/180
Noah Eltinge 1/17
Abraham Dorau 67/720
Simon DuBois 81/720
Philip D. Bevier 1/120
Margaret Rosekrause 11/360

TOWN OF NEW PALTZ.

315

There have been several changes in the boundaries of the town. The
tract was enlarged in 1775. A part of Hurley was annexed in 1809. In
1842 Esopus took a part of New Paltz; in 1844 Rosendale got a portion;
the new town of Lloyd was taken wholly out in 1845, and Gardiner got a
slice in 1853.

The '‘Dusine” or '‘Twelve Men” who were in office at the time the town
was incorporated under the State government in 1785, consisted of the
following persons :

Simon Dubois
Johannes Freer
Abraham Donaldson
Petrus Hasbrouck
Benjamin Deyo
Matthew Lefever

Jacobus Hasbrouck
Jacobus Hasbrouck, Jr,
Abraham Eltinge
Samuel Bevier
Isaac Lefever
Abraham Ein

The French church at New Paltz, when originally organized, and while
under the pastorate of Revs. Daillie and Bourepos, had no connection with
any classis, or other ecclesiastical body. After the departure of the last-
named gentleman, several years elapsed without the services of a regular
clergyman, and many of the marriages and baptisms are recorded as hav-
ing taken place in Kingston. One authority alleges that there was no
settled minister until 1730, at which time the Dutch was the prevailing
language. In the meantime the factional split had occurred and the new
church was built in 1720.

The consistory of New Paltz united with those of Rochester, Marble-
town and Shawangunk in 1741, and called Rev. Casparus Fryenmoet as
their pastor. Fie was to receive one hundred pounds per year, of which
New Paltz and Shawangunk together paid 31 pounds.

Rev. Johannes Mauritius Goetschius assumed the pastorate of the
churches of New Paltz and Shawangunk in 1760. Each congregation was
to pay him 40 pounds in gold, the Shawangunk church, with farm and
buildings, and New Paltz to lodge himself and horse while there.

A new stone church was erected in 1773. This was replaced in 1839 by
another, which after several enlargements still stands.

The union between the New Paltz church and the Reformed Dutch
church was made in 1772. The use of the English language in the ser-
vices and records began in 1799, when Rev. John H. Meyer became pastor.
Previous to this time Rev. J. H. Goetschius, a nephew of Rev. Johannes
Maurilius Goetschius officiated from 1775 to 1796. After Mr. Meyer’s

3i6

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

departure in 1803, the church was without a pastor until 1807. From
that time they were as follows :

Rev. Peter D. Froeligh, 1807 to 1816,

Rev, William R. Bogardus, 1817 to 1831.

Rev. Douw Van O’Luida, 1832 to 1844.

Rev. John C, Vandervoort, 1844 to 1847.

Rev. Charles H. Still, 1848 to 1865.

Rev. Peter Peltz, 1865 to 1881.

Rev. Ame Vennema, February 17, 1882, to February 13, 1886.

Rev. Abel H. Huizina, P. H. D., April 12, 1886, to July 6, 1894.

Rev. Abel H, Huizina, Ph.D., April 12, 1886, to July 6, 1894.

Rev. John G. Fagg, November 3, 1894, to December 9, 1895.

Rev. E. C, Oggel, D.D., the present pastor, was called February 3, 1896.

and installed by the Classes of Kingston, April 8, 1896. Doctor Oggel is
a man of ability and energy and highly esteemed by his people.

The Methodist Episcopal Church was organized over the territory of
this region as an adjunct to the Philadelphia Conference in 1786. Ser-
vices were held at the houses of Hendrick Deyo and Henry DuBois, in
New Paltz. In 1804 the New York Conference annexed the Albany dis-
trict, in which Ulster County was located, and the name of the New Paltz
charge was given this circuit in 1824. The Church in New Paltz was
built in 1840. That at Plattekill had been erected in 1825 and 1826. The
Church at Centerville was dedicated in 1852, at Cold Spring in 1861.

About the year 1894 the St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church was
erected at New Paltz, the same having been completed during the pas-
torate of Rev. John B. McGrath, who was an able man and energetic
worker, and he succeeded in canceling the church debt. He was suc-
ceeded by Rev. John J. Morris, who took charge of the parish comprising
the churches of Gardiner and New Paltz, on July ist, 1899. Important
repairs were made to the church building in the summer of 1900, and
other repairs have since been made. The church edifice is a neat and sub-
stantial building located in the southern portion of the village. The
present pastor is Rev. Wm. J. Stuart, who was appointed April ii, 1905.
The parish is at present in a prosperous condition, and the pastor is
zealous in all that tends to the material and spiritual welfare of the people.

New Paltz took its proper place in the War of the Revolution, as one of
the leading communities of Ulster County. Most of those who fought
during that war were members of the Fourth Regiment, otherwise known
as the Hardenberghs, and a considerable number of the officers were New
Paltz men. Their names will be found in another portion of this work as

TOWN OF NEW PALTZ.

317

will also the names of the subscribers to the Articles of Association of

1775-

During the war one of the most difficult duties of the people of New
Paltz was guarding the frontier against the Tories and Indians. Many
of the savages, led by the Tories, committed fearful outrages, murder and
arson among them. One whole family was slaughtered. By extraordinary
care a considerable number of Tories were captured while trying to reach
the English lines, and several of them were subsequently executed at
Kingston.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century there were about eighty
slaves belonging to the families of New Paltz. They were manumitted
gradually.

In the Civil War, the town of New Paltz was well represented, about
one hundred men enlisting in the Union Army and nearly half that num-
ber in the Navy. Most of those in the Army served in the 156th Regiment,
though there were a large number in other organizations. On a monu-
ment in the New Paltz Cemetery are the names of those who laid down
their lives for their country as follows :

Lieut George P. Lord, U. S. N.,
Captain Johannes Lefever,
Sergeant David H. Hay,

Richard Ellsworth,
Abraham Hunt,
Charles Booth,
Luther Freer,
Ananias Johnson,
John Harp,

Silas Booth,

Joseph R. Wood,
Henry Osterhout,
Benjamin Smith,
Thomas Close,
Simon Freer,
George Brundage,

Andrew Yaple,
William Ackert,
Richard Oliver,
John S. Humstone,
Jahn Van Tekel,
John Beck,

Charles Ketcham,
Ezekiel Freer,
James L. Hess,
John Anson,

Conard Bowviece,
William Eckert.

NEW PALTZ VILLAGE.

This is located on the east bank of the Wallkill near the center of the
town. It is the largest and most important village in the town, and is
one of the most interesting points in the county. It contains four
churches : The Reformed Protestant, Methodist Episcopal, St. Joseph’s
Roman Catholic and African Methodist. There are two newspapers:
The New Paltz Times and The New Paltz Independent. The Huguenot

3i8

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

National Bank, a flourishing and successful institution, is situated on
Main street, at its junction with Plattekill avenue. The New Paltz
Savings Bank has a large deposit, and is located in the lower part of the
village on Main street.

There are five hotels: The Tamney House, Brodhead House, Steen’s
Hotel, The Riverside Cottage and The Schoonmaker Plouse; also a
number of large and substantial store buildings, many of brick, in which
are conducted progressive and up-to-date business with the large sur-
rounding country.

The village is furnished with a supply of mountain water by the New
Paltz Water Works Company, which was organized in the year 1892, and
is well lighted by the Electric Light Company of New Paltz.

The village was incorporated in December, 1887, and the first president
was Jacob M. Hasbrouck.

The board of trustees at present has the following members :

Jacob M. Hasbrouck, President.

Lewis H. Woolsey.

John C. Kaiser.

Elting Harp.

Henry Hasbrouck.

John Schmid has been the village clerk since its incorporation.

BANKS.

The Huguenot National Bank was organized February loth, 1853, with
a capital of $125,000. The first board of directors consisted of Edmund
Elting, Abram P. LeFevre, Mathusalem Elting, John Howell, Garret Le-
Fevre, Jacob G. DuBois, Roelif Elting, Alfred Deyo, Oscar Hasbrouck,
Timothy Seymour, Capt. Abram Elting, Moses P. LeFevre, Abram V. N.
Elting. Edmund Elting was the first president, A. G. Ruggles, the first
cashier. During the financial crisis of 1857 the bank passed into the
hands of a receiver. It was later reorganized and Roelif Elting was
elected president; Nathan LeFevre cashier, and Edmund Elting, assistant
cashier. In 1875 an entire new organization took place; Hon. Jacob
LeFevre was chosen president, and Mathusalem DuBois cashier. The
change from a State to a National bank was effected in 1865. In 1875 the
capital was reduced to $100,000.

The New Paltz Savings Bank was organized in May, 1871, in accord-

TOWN OF NEW PALTZ.

319

ance with an act of the Legislature passed in March of that year. The
original trustees were Jacob LeFevre, Daniel L. Heaton, Zachariah Bruyn,
Thaddeus Hait, Edmund Bruyn, Derrick W. DuBois, Elijah Woolsey,
Oscar Hasbrouck, Peter LeFevre, Solomon Deyo, Calvin T. Hazen,
Huram Hasbrouck, Jesse Lyons, Floyd S. McKinstry, Nathan Williams,
Abner Hasbrouck, Charles W. Deyo, John B. Deyo, Edmund Elting and
Jonathan Deyo.

NEW PALTZ FIRE DEPARTMENT.

The fire department here is considered not only the best for a village
of this size, but takes its place on inspection day with many long estab-
lished city companies of high standing. The first fire department of New
Paltz consisted of Huguenot Fire Engine No. i, organized September
16, 1861. This company was equipped with a hand engine, purchased at
Poughkeepsie. After the disbanding of this company the village was
without fire protection until July, 1889, when Ulster Hook and Ladder
Company No. i was organized. This company served as a bucket
company until the completion of the waterworks system in New Paltz,
in 1892, when the Star Hose Company was also organized. These com-
panies are both in a flourishing condition at this time. Ulster Hook and
Ladder now has about sixty-five members and Star Hose Company about
forty-five. William Bleeker is the Fire Chief.

Eltinge Post Number 212, Department of N. Y. G. A. R., was char-
tered December 14th, 1883, with the following veterans of the Union
Army in the Civil War as charter members: Charles J. Ackert, Charles

H. Bleeker, Alexander Eerguson, Joseph Uhrviller, Charles Smith, John

I. Rosencrans, George W. Van Voorhis, John W. Ackert, Zachariah
Berryan, Stephen J. Yeaple, Samuel D. W. Morey, Benjamin F. DuBois,
Thomas Johnson, Jacob Wynkoop. All are still living except Charles J.
Ackert and Samuel D. W. Morey. Charles J. Ackert was the first com-
mander of the Post. Since his death William H. D. Blake has been
the commander. Since its organization there have been ninety-four
honorably discharged soldiers and sailors mustered in as members. At
the last semi-annual muster there were thirty-eight members in good
standing.

There is in this village, Mohonk Lodge No. 565, Independent Order of
Odd Fellows, which was instituted a number of years ago. The present

320

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

Noble Grand is Irving D. Sutton. The lodge is in a flourishing and pros-
perous condition. There is also the Wallkill Lodge Knights of Pythias,
and the organization has erected a handsome building on Chestnut street
on the second floor of which are their lodge rooms. The present C. C.
is Luther Hasbrouck.

BURIAL PLACES. 1

The old burial place in the village, nearly opposite the Memorial
House, is in good condition. The remains of many of the old settlers,
were here interred. The oldest stone records the death, on October 7th,
1831, of Abram DuBois, the last ‘‘survivor of the twelve patentees.” And
there are a number of other old inscriptions, among which are the fol-
lowing :

“In memory of Roelif Elting, who died the 21st Feb’y, 1792, aged 59 years, 6
months & 9 days.”

“Here Lyeth the Body of Joseph Hasbrouck, Esqr, aged 40 years, 3 months and
18 days. Died January 28th, 1792.”

“Here Lies Interred the Body of Elsie Hasbrouck, Widow of Joseph Hasbrouck,
Esqr. Dec’d ye 27 Day of July, 1764, Aged 73 Years, 8 Months And 3 Days.”

“In memory of Noah Elting, Esqr, who departed this Life Sept, 27th, 1778, aged
57 years, and Jacomintje, his spouse, who departed this Life August 27th, 1790,
aged 75.”

The New Paltz Rural Cemetery was incorporated February i8th, 1861.
The grounds are located about a mile south of the village, and comprise
about twenty acres. It contains many substantial and handsome monu-
ments, including one of Quincy granite, erected to the memory of the
soldiers who died battling for the Union. It is inscribed with the names
of the patriotic dead from this town who gave their lives, that government
“of the people, for the people and by the people should not perish from the
earth.”

PROMINENT MEN OF THE TOWN. r

The town has been the residence of many men of ability and reputation.
A large number of these have preferred the quiet life of private citizens,
and have made their homes in this historic spot and passed their days in
the pursuit of agricultural, mercantile or other vocations, content in the
respect and esteem of their immediate neighbors, and the devotion and
love of the home circle. There are some, however, who have attained
positions of trust and responsibility in the public service and many have
achieved eminence.

. TOWN OF NEW PALTZ.

321

Among these was the Hon. Jacob LeFevre, who was born in the town
of New Paltz, and resided here until his decease in 1905. Mr. LeFevre
was born in April, 1830, and lived here during his whole life, except
when occupying official positions at the State or National capital. His
home was on the farm of his ancestors, and came to him in direct line of
descent from Jean, son of Simon LeFevre, the patentee. He was a public
spirited man and of remarkable energy and activity, always willing
to give not only of his time but means to assist any worthy project in
which he became interested. He was Supervisor of the town in 1861-62,
member of the Assembly in 1863-64-65-67, delegate to the national con-
vention in 1888, and representative in Congress 1892-96. He was one of
the directors of the Wallkill Valley Railroad Company during its con-
struction. He was for thirty years president of The Huguenot
National Bank, and also a director of the Hanover National Bank, New
York City; vice-president of the New Paltz Savings Bank; vice-president
and director of the Dutchess Insurance Company; a director of the New
Paltz Huguenot Memorial Society; member of the Holland Society;
member of the local board of the New Paltz Normal School; Trustee of
the New Paltz Academy; member Mohonk Lodge 565 I. O. O. F., New
Paltz, N. Y. ; member of K. of P., Wallkill Lodge 162, New Paltz, N. Y. ;
member of Ardonia Lodge No. 718 F. A. M., Highland, N. Y. ; member
of the Masonic organization, and affiliated with Kingston Lodge, No. 10.
Mr. LeFevre married Ann Amelia Woolsey, daughter of Elijah Woolsey,
who survives him, together with four children, George LeFevre, Frank J.
LeFevre, Albert LeFevre, and Mrs. Catharine Poucher, wife of J. W.
Poucher, M. D., of Poughkeepsie, N. Y.

One of the most respected and honored citizens of Ulster County is
Hon. Frank J. LeFevre. He was born in the town of New Paltz in 1874,
and has always retained this as his place of residence. His ancestors
resided in this town since its settlement by the Huguenots in 1668. For a
time he engaged in the banking business in New Paltz, and in 1902 he
was elected to the State Senate from the twenty-fifth senatorial district,
consisting of the counties of Ulster and Greene. He was superintendent
of the New York State Building at St. Louis during the Louisiana Pur-
chase Exposition. While there he was nominated for Congress from the
twenty-fourth district, comprising the counties of Delaware, Otsego,
Schoharie and Ulster, and was elected to tfie Fifty-ninth Congress with

322

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

little opposition. Mr. LeFevrc succeeded his father, Hon. Jacob LeFevre,
as president of The Huguenot National Bank, and has since occupied that
position. He is also a director of the Poughkeepsie Trust Company; a
director of the Dutchess Fire Insurance Company, and a trustee of the
Old Senate House of Kingston, N. Y.

Hon. John N. Vanderlyn has been a resident of the town of New Paltz
and practicing attorney there for the past thirty years, and during that
time has won the respect and esteem not only of his own townsmen but of
many people throughout the county with whom he has been brought in
contact in the performance of professional or official duties. He is a
native of Orange County, and first read law in the office of that veteran
of the bar, Hon. J. M. Wilkin. After one year of preparatory study, Mr.
Vanderlyn attended the Albany Law School, from which so many eminent
practitioners have graduated.

After graduation from this school he entered the law office of Newkirk
& Chase, of Hudson, N. Y., Judge Newkirk, the senior member of this
firm, being an uncle of Mr. Vanderlyn. After several years’ practice at
Hudson he removed to New Paltz, and has since made this his home. On
January 31, 1878, Mr. Vanderlyn married Miss Magdalena L. Hasbrouck,
of New Paltz, N. Y., a daughter of Joseph Hasbrouck and Sarah (Le-
Fevre) Hasbrouck. They had one child, Joseph H. Vanderlyn, now a
practicing attorney at New Paltz. In 1886 Mr. Vanderlyn was elected
District Attorney of Ulster County by a large majority, succeeding Hon.
A. T. Clearwater in that position. He was again elected in November,
1889, and completed the full term of six years as prosecuting officer of the
county. During his incumbency of the office many important criminal
cases were tried, and Mr. Vanderlyn established the reputation of an
efficient and capable official.

It was during his second term that the defaulting treasurer and assist-
ant treasurer of the Ulster County Savings Institution were indicted and
tried for having appropriated about $600,000 of the depositor’s money;
and the diligence, vigor and ability shown in this trial reflected credit
upon the prosecuting officer; both of the defaulters being convicted and
imprisoned at Dannemora State Prison.

In 1897 Mr. Vanderlyn’s name was brought before the Republican
County Convention for County Judge, but he failed to secure the nomina-
tion. During his many years of practice he has been engaged in many

TOWN OF NEW PALTZ.

323

cases of importance and has a large clientage in the southern portion of
the county. He has a reputation for ability and integrity.

Beside New Paltz, a number of smaller villages and hamlets are located
in the town, perhaps the most important of these is

Ohioville. — Situated along the direct line of the trolley road from
New Paltz to Highland, about two miles from the former. It is a beauti-
ful little place, having a good hotel, a general store and post-office kept
by J. E. Vanderlyn; blacksmith shop, and a number of fine summer cot-
tages. Having good connections with both New Paltz and Poughkeepsie,
it makes almost an ideal summer home.

Put Corners is a hamlet about a mile or so east of New Paltz, along
the trolley line, and was named in honor of Napoleon Purdy, who came
from Putnam County, N. Y., and located there.

Springtown is a growing summer resort located in the northwestern
part of the town, between the Wallkill River and the Shawangunk Moun-
tains, along the line of the Wallkill Valley Railroad. A large number of
city people pass the summer months at this place.

Butterville. — About two miles west of New Paltz, is near the base of
the mountain and in the midst of a prosperous farming country.

324

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

: ^ CHAPTER XXV.

TOWN OF OLIVE.

By DeWitt C. Davis.

The town of Olive was formed from Marbletown, Shandaken and
Hurley, April 15, 1823. A part was annexed to Woodstock and a
part of Woodstock annexed to Olive in 1853.

Olive is situated near the center of the county, with the Catskill Moun-
tains rising on the northern and northwestern borders, and the Esopus,
the principal stream in the town, flowing southeastward a little north of
the center. The smaller streams, tributary to the Esopus, flow southeast-
erly and southwesterly.

The first on the west is a small stream flowing through Tongore, near
the late residence of Gordon C. Davis, northerly into Tongore brook.
Tongore brook rises in Kromville and flows easterly through the farms of
Walter North, Ward Cornish, Willis Davis and others, and empties into
the Esopus just above Wincheirs Falls. On this stream were formerly two
saw-mills, one built in an early day which later was owned and operated
by William H. Krom, of Kromville; the other was on the premises of
Ward Cornish. Both are gone.

The next stream rises in the Deer Park and flows through the farm
of Jacob and Henry Winchell, which was once owned by Aaron Winchell
and his father. Another stream rises in the vicinity of Little Point, unites
with the former, and flows easterly to the Esopus, just above Bishop’s
Falls.' On this stream Henry Winchell, grandfather of the present owners
had a saw and grist-mill, and on the other branch was a saw-mill owned
by Josiah Turner. Lower down the stream was a large tannery, once
operated by James R. Goodwin, then by Gideon M. Sprague, and after-
ward by Lewis Hollister. Nothing but the foundations can now be
seen of any of these. The name of the stream is Clay Kyle Fountain Kill.
The next stream is small, running through Olive city and discharging
into the Esopus near the old Turner place, now owned by Willis Barton.

The Bukkabom or Bookabome rises at the foot of High Point, and
empties into the Esopus at Brodhead’s bridge. There were, at one time,

DeWitt C. Davis.

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TOWN OF OLIVE.

325

four saw-mills on this stream, but none are in operation now. One was
owned by the Brodheads at Brodhead’s bridge; up the stream was one
owned by Joseph Bell and John B. Davis. A stave mill, in which in May,
1858, the owner accidentally amputated the fingers of his right hand, be-
longed to D. C. Davis; up the stream at Bridal Veil Falls was a mill
built by David Abbey and afterward owned by Abram Blom. It is now
obliterated. Up near the mountains Stephan Winchell had a saw-mill, but
only the foundations can be seen.

There is a small spring brook which rises on the farm of William B.
Ennist and flows into the Bakeman ; next is the Jackey Brook, named after
old Jack Crispell, a negro, formerly owned by the Crisped family. This is
joined by a large spring brook rising on the farm of Thomas Eckerts and
flowing through the maple-sap grove of Martin H. Crispell, and near
West Shokan, empties into the Bakeman below the mill of Z. P. Boice.
The Bakeman, flowing through West Shokan at Boice’s saw-mill, is
formed by spring brooks within a mile above the station and empties into
the Esopus near the residences of Frank Boice and Osten Rider. This
stream is noted for trout.

The Bushkill is the most noted stream in the town for trout. It rises
in Waldron Hollow, and is made up by the Gulf Hollow stream, the Can-
ape Brook, the Mine Hollow stream., the South Hollow stream, the Wit-
tenberg stream and the Dry Brook. It empties into the Esopus about half
a mile above the Shokan bridge. On this stream there have been five
saw-mills, two or three stave mills and a large tannery. All are now
gone. The tannery was owned by Nathan W. Watson who was super-
visor for several years, and in 1857 a member of Assembly from this
district. The Traver Hollow stream rises back of Sam’s point, at the foot
of Cross mountain, and empties into the Esopus half a mile below Boice-
ville. There have been two saw-mills on this stream, one owned by
Millard H. Davis, still in running order.

On the east side of the Esopus, the first stream is the Beaverkill, which
flows through the Beaverkill swamp. It is fed by several small streams
from the hills and mountains, and discharges into the Esopus half a mile
above Winchell’s Falls. One saw-mill owned by Marshall Winn and
Benjamin Van Steenberg, is now in operation. A small stream crosses
the State road near the house of Edward Davis, and supplies Peter R.
Elmendorf’s saw-mill and empties into the Beaverkill.

326

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

Butternut Brook, originally known as Olymute Brook, is formed by two
streams ; one comes from the Coons’ neighborhood, the other from above
the farm of Ephraim Weeks, and they unite below the bridge near the
house of John DuBois, three-quarters of a mile from its mouth. It
empties into the Esopus near the Mayer’s tannery. Lemuel Boice and
John P. Boice formerly had saw-mills and Andrew Hill a grist-mill on
this stream. Another small stream rises in the hills near Joseph Whittle’s
place and reaches the Esopus just below Boiceville. A legend is that
Abram D. Ladew, who once lived on the Swarthout place, was bitten by
a rattlesnake while looking for his cows up this stream, and used remedies
which cured him. It has been suggested by the whimsically inclined, that
there was a snake remedy factory in this region but there is no authority
for the statement.

Further along is the Beaver Creek, which forms the line between the
towns of Olive and Shandaken, and reaches the Esopus at Cold Brook.

The mountains of Olive are romantic and picturesque. Near Little
Point is the Gap, called since ancient times the “Wagon Road,” though
there is no road there. The Gap is about lOO feet wide, with sheer rock
sides, as though by some convulsion of nature the mountains had been
broken apart.

Round Mountain is a ridge extending from the Gap to High Point, and
is 3,100 feet high. From High Point the City of Kingston and the Hud-
son may be seen in clear weather, and the view to the south, east and
west has been called the finest in the Catskills. On High Point and
Round Mountain, huckleberries abound. The Point is level on top and
all about are great flat rocks where names have been cut by visitors, some
of the inscriptions being very ancient. To the north and northwest is a
succession of mountains as far as vision extends.

Next is South Mountain,, also famous for huckleberries. Crossing
South Plollow there is another mountain, extending to the Canape, and
from High Point to Watson Hollow; across the Canape is the Mom-
baccus Mountain, noted for huckleberries and bears. The writer has seen
the bear traps there. The Mombaccus Mountain extends to the Shan-
daken line at Gulf Hollow. The Shandaken line crosses Breath Hill, the
Hanover Mountains, the Blackberry Mountains, Sam’s Point and Quarry
Mountains.

On the east side of the Esopus is Toran’s Hook, where it is said the

TOWN OF OLIVE.

327

Indians had a sort of a carousal. There is what is known as the Indian
dancing floor, described as a “pLce of flat rocks,” which has been much
visited. Near this is the Tice Ten Eyck, so named for a member of that
well-known family. It was supposed that there was a mine on this
mountain the location of which was known to the Indians, but no white
man has ever been able to discover it, though repeated attempts have been
made.

The first settlement was made at Olive City. At this point was located
the first Old School Baptist Church. The building is still standing though
a new one has been built near Hog’s Back, which is occupied by the
congregation. A short distance west was a tannery owned by James R.
Goodwin. The Post Office at Olive Bridge is at the store of John H.
Looke, who is also town clerk. Bishop’s Falls is a short distance below ;
there is a very old grist-mill here, which still grinds. It was once owned
by a very remarkable character, named Jacob Bishop, who was blind.
It is said that he never made mistakes in his grist nor in the bags of his
customers. The mill is now owned and operated by Jesse B. Boice.
Across the falls is an old mill formerly ov/ned by Henry DeWitt, long
out of use. Here are also three boarding houses, owned by William
Haver, John Beesmer and Alex Van Kleek.

About a mile above Olive City, half or three-quarters of a century ago,
was a hotel owned by William J. Davis, where the elections were held and
town business transacted. Darius W. Hover now owns it and maintains
a boarding house. Near this the fi.rst bridge across the Esopus was built
in 1825, which was washed away many years ago.

The first Methodist Episcopal Church was built at Tongore, in 1822 or
1823, and the congregation embraced all the families of that faith in the
town. Among the earliest members were Jacob Van Steenberg and
Benjamin North, both local preachers of note. District No. 2 school-
house is located here.

A store was kept where Alonzo G. Davis resided before his death, and
where Gordon Craig afterwards lived, and conducted a small store.
Craig was the first supervisor of the town after its organization in 1823,
and in 1832 was member of Assembly for Ulster County. Other mem-
bers of Assembly from Olive have been, Conrad Brodhead in 1840, John
D. La Montague in 1846, Martin Schutt in 1856, Nathan W. Watson in

328

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

1857, Benjamin Turner in i860, Thomas Hill in 1863, and Charles H.
Weidner in 1887.

Kromville is three miles south of Tongore, in the extreme south-
western part of the town, and is a farming region. It has a Reformed
Church, a school-house, a store and post-office. Samsonville, in the
western part of the town, has a Methodist Church, which belongs to the
Tongore Circuit, a school-house, a store and a post-office. A tannery
owned by Pratt and Samson once made much business here. It burned
down, and there is now a saw-mill and grist-mill.

Brodhead's Bridge is a station on the Ulster and Delaware Railroad.
A stone “dock” once owned by Hewitt Boice, and now by S. D. Coyken-
dall, does a large business. It is in charge of John J. Boyce. The store
and post-office is kept by Ira Elmendorf. Mrs. Bessie James conducts a
large boarding house, which will accommodate 150 guests.

Two miles above is West Shokan, a railroad station called Shokan.
Matthews & North are large merchants here, requiring the services of
four clerks. The trade is large, much of it coming from the town of
Denning. Z. P. Boice, now Sheriff of Ulster County, has a saw-mill which
employs fifteen men and four teams. Logs are drawn six to eight miles.
The product is chiefly heading, shingles and boat timber. A hotel owned
by Satterlee & Hamilton will accommodate fifty guests. George Siemon
and William Dibbell have blacksmith and wagon shops. Herbert Bell is in
the livery and harness making business, and John Van Kleek and Abner
D. Winne are also in the livery business. During the summer season there
is great activity by reason of summer boarders. There is a meat market,
barber-shop and post-office. The' shoemaker, Allen F. Eckert, has been in
business here for more than fifty years. Here is also a school employing
two teachers, and a physician, Dr. J. D. W. Dumond. The Baptist Church
is located about half a mile above the village. There is also a variety store
and jewelry repairing shop, conducted by Oranzo Giles. The oldest house
in the village is owned by Mrs. Jemima Elmendorf; it was originally the
property of Hendricus Crispell, who owned it during the war of the
Revolution.

On the east side of the Esopus is Shokan, originally called Ashokjan.
There are two churches here, the Reformed Church and the Methodist
Episcopal. The Reformed Church was organized in 1799. There is a
general store, owned by Azarias Winchell & Son. Charles H. Davis deals

TOWN OF OLIVE.

329

in groceries and boots and shoes, and runs the post-office as deputy post-
master; Mayer’s tannery occupies the ground on which Hoyt Brothers
had theirs forty or fifty years ago; John J. DuBois does wagon-making
and blacksmithing. The district school has two divisions. A. E. Schoon-
maker is the undertaker near the Shokan bridge. There are also a milli-
nery establishment, conducted by Mrs. Elwyn Winchell, two dressmakers,
Mrs. William Dibbell and Mrs. James Diamond, and a number of board-
ing houses which cater to the summer trade. Dr. B. B. Bloom, a physician,
resides here.

Boiceville is a hamlet located on the Ulster and Delaware Railroad.
The store of John C. Hornbeck and the post-office, which is kept there, are
in charge of Benjamin Church. An excelsior factory, owned by John
C. Hornbeek, employs about twenty men and there are several summer
boarding houses. The school-house is on the west side of the creek.

Cold Brook, a railroad station, is a large shipping point for quarry-
stone, which comes from the mountains in abundant quantities. The Eso-
pus is bridged at this point for the convenience of the people from Wood-
stock and Wittenberg who patronize the railway.

Olive, the village which bears the name of the town, is about two miles
from the Olive Branch station on the railroad, in the southwestern part
of the town. It was formerly a business point of some importance. It is
surrounded by a farming region, has one store and a blacksmith shop. The
post-office is kept by Isaac Delemater at his residence.

Brown’s Station was formerly known as Brook’s Crossing, and is the
first station on the U. & D. railroad after it reaches the town. Levi
Elmendorf is a merchant and postmaster, and there is a school-house
nicely located. There is a Reformed Church and a blacksmith shop. The
church has no pastor at present. The Hudson River Wood and Pulp
Mill at Winchell’s Falls does a large business. The falls were once the
property of Lemuel Winchell, who had a store and foundry there about
one hundred years ago. Gideon Perry had a carding and fulling mill
about the same time. It was from here that the Bush boys, Isaac, Stephen
and Cornelius, were kidnapped by the Indians during the war of the
Revolution. It was years afterward when they returned. Two of them,
Stephen and Cornelius settled here; Isaac settled somewhere in the
western part of the State. There are two large boarding houses, conducted
by Albert Brown and Egbert Dederick.

330

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

Acorn Hill is the center of a good farming region. There are also
a number of fine stone-quarries, and the Wesleyan Methodists have a
small church here.

WiNCHELLS is the site of a school-house located about half way between
Olive Bridge and Samsonville. Near it is Little Point and Bear Spring,
which tradition says was formerly used by the bears as a summer resort
for bathing purposes. It is an excellent spring of clear cold water.

Watson Hollow was formerly the center of active business. Nathan
W. Watson had a large tannery, and there were two saw-mills and a stave
mill. The tannery was burned and many of the houses have been torn
down and moved away. Mr. Watson was supervisor of the town in 1850,
1857, 1864, 1865, 1866, and was a member of the Assembly in 1858.

Hog's Back is so called on account of the shape of the hill; Coons’
neighborhood lies between Tice Ten Eyck and Toran’s Hook; there are
several good farms there, among them those of Henry Coons, John J.
Weeks and Willis Everett. Huckleberry Hill is near the foot of High
Point. Charles Hamilton and Richard O. Constable had farms near. The
Constable place remained in the family for three generations. It is now
owned by Michael Dwyer.

The first hotel was at Olive City and was kept by Conrad DuBois.
Lemuel Winchell opened the first store at Winchell’s Falls.

There are twelve school districts in the town and fourteen teachers are
employed, Shokan and West Shokan each having two.

The northern and western part of the town is from the Hardenberg
patent, while the southern and eastern portion comes from the Marble-
town Commons. The Hurley Patentees’ settlements began about the
middle of the eighteenth century. George Middagh settled near Olive
Bridge in 1740, where he was joined in 1742 by Samuel Cox, and in 1745
by William Nottingham. John Crispell located just east of Shokan in
1747 and Hendrick Crispell at Shokan in 1760, on the place now owned by
Zadoc P. Boice and others. West Shokan is built principally on this farm.
John Coons settled early near Brown’s Station, and many others whose
names appear in the early histories of the towns from which its territory
was taken were the early builders of the town of Olive.

The house owned by William D. Every at Shokan, was for many years
the only one there. It was not until after the construction of the Kingston
and Middletown Turnpike in 1832 that other settlers located at that point.

TOWN OF OLIVE.

331

The first bridge across the Esopus in the town was built about 1825,
near the boarding house of the heirs of Darius W. Hover. This was the
only one in the town for many years. It was carried away by high water,
and in 1852 the bridge was built at Shokan.

The first post-office in the town was at Tongore. It was called Olive
P. O., and the mails were carried from Marbletown to Shandaken weekly.
The Olive post-office was afterward moved to Beaverkill, and kept by
John J. Tappen.

A considerable portion of the town was owned by landlords until about
1842 and 1843, when the tenants refused to pay rent because of unsatis-
factory conditions of tenure of the leases. The landlords generally sold
the property to the settlers, and when the war was over landlordism
was abolished.

The early industry of the town was lumbering, and the utilization of
the bark in tanning. After the timber was cut and the saw-mills and
tanneries had passed away, the energies of the people found an outlet in
quarrying bluestone from the hills where it abounds in inexhaustible
quantities.

The average elevation of the lowlands of the town is about 800 feet.
A curious fact worthy of note is that the towns of Olive, Rochester and
Denning corner on a mountain 2,700 feet above tide.

The earliest physicians in Olive were Doctors Connelly, Quinlin and
McClellan. The area of the town is 37,370 acres.

The present population of the town, by the State census of 1905 is
2,347, having decreased from 3,083 in 1870.

332

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

CHAPTER XXVI.
TOWN OF PLATTEKILL.

By DeWitt W. Ostrander.

HIS is one of the southern tier towns. It is bounded on the north

by the south line of the New Paltz Patent; on the east by the

town of Marlborough; on the south by the northerly line of the
County of Orange, and on the west by the towns of Shawangunk,
Gardiner and Lloyd. Its area is about 20,890 acres.

The town was originally formed from the town of Marlborough by
act of the Legislature passed March 21, 1800. A part of Shawangunk
was annexed April 3, 1846, but was restored March 28, 1848. Although
formed in 1800, yet for many years previous, and for a long time pre-
ceding the Revolution, it was a large factor in the old town of Marl-
borough.

The surface is generally a rolling upland, the easterly border is traversed
by a range of hills known as the Marlborough Mountains, along the
summit of which is the dividing line between Plattekill and Marlborough.

The town is well watered with small streams, the largest of which is
the Quassaick Creek, which rises in the easterly part and flows southerly
into Orange County. The Black Creek rises in the central part of the
town near Ardonia and flows northerly through Clintondale and empties
in the Hudson north of Elmore’s Corners in the town of Esopus, and the
Plattekill Creek rises near the center of the western border of the town,
flows northwesterly and empties in the Wallkill.

The soil is a fine quality of sandy loam, fertile and productive. Large
quantities of hay and grain are raised in the southerly and westerly part
of the town, while the central and northerly part ranks high as a fruit
producing section.

This town is included in the bounds of the extravagant patent, known
as the “Errus Patent,” which was cancelled in 1689, afterward
divided into smaller parcels. Among the early grants within the town
are found the following patents of land granted by King George, the
Second :

Dewitt W. Ostrander.

TOWN OF PLATTEKILL.

333

Patent granted to William Bond, dated July 7, 1720, conveys a tract
of 500 acres in the southeasterly part of the town. Patent granted to
William Bradford, dated Sept, i, 1727, conveys 2,000 acres in the south-
easterly part of the town. Patent granted to Andries Marschalk and
John Spratt (known as the Spratt and Marshall Patent), dated April,
1828, conveys 1,000 acres in the northwesterly part of the tov/n.

The Richard Durham Patent is dated October 13, 1752, and conveys
2,000 acres in the northeasterly portion of the town. The Bradley and
Jovan Patent, granted to Richard Bradley, Attorney-General of the
Province of New York, and Millan Jovan, is dated June 4, 1726, and
consists of one parcel containing 400 acres, and another of 4,000 acres,
situated in the southwesterly part of the town. The Patent known as the
“Richard Bradley Children,” was granted to “Ann Bradley, Sarah Brad-
ley, Catharine Bradley, George Bradley and Elizabeth Bradley, “the
daughters and younger son of our Attorney-General of our Province of
New York,” dated March 26, 1739, and consists of two parcels, one con-
taining 817 acres, and another of 1,783 acres.

Other patents were granted during our Colonial existence, and after
independence the State conveyed such lands as were found to be vacant
and not covered by Colonial grants. These Colonial grants, made before
the Revolution, were declared valid by the State, and the patentees either
settled on their grants or sold to others.

Plattekill is a town of homesteads; nearly all the farms and houses
are owned by their occupants and have been built from the cultivation of
the soil. It is mostly the middle class that populates the town; the
steady, moral, thinking class; industrious and prosperous, unsoiled by
wealth and not unnerved by poverty. With prosperity comes culture and
morality, a condition always found where neither “riches nor poverty
abound.”

The first market vineyard in the Hudson River valley north of Cornwall
was planted in this town by William T. Cornell in 1845. This vineyard
occupies land in Clintondale. From that small beginning, fruit culture
has spread in the towns of Marlborough, Lloyd, Esopus, and a part of
Orange County, and thousands of tons of the finest grapes in the world
are shipped to the great cities, especially New York, Boston and Phila-
delphia. Among the vineyardists was William Kniffin, a stone-mason,
who had a few acres of land. Mr. Kniffin was a man of clear perception

334

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

and accurate judgment, who observed and experimented until he perfected
a system of grape-pruning known as the “Kniffin System,’' which is the
“drooping” system, and is most largely practiced by vineyardists through-
out the United States. Plattekill therefore stands forth as the mother of
the Hudson River vineyard industry and as the most peerless instructor
of the nation in grape-pruning.

It may also be noted here that the “Isabella” was the pioneer grape,
which has long since been discarded, and that the now famous standard
variety, the “Concord,” was introduced in the Hudson River valley by
Andrew J. Caywood, who formerly lived near Ardonia.

The first town meeting was held April i, 1800, pursuant to an act of
the Legislature passed March 21, 1800, by which the town was formed
from Marlborough.

The following officers were elected: Supervisor, David Ostrander;

Town Clerk, Daniel Everett; Commissioners of Highways, Samuel
Baldwin, William Drake and Jabez Close; Assessors, Peter Esterly,
James Rose and Thaddeus Hait; Overseers of the Poor, Jonathan
Bailey, Peter Esterly ; Constables, Robert Gilmore, Cornelius Polhamus ;
Collector, Robert Gilmore. One of the post-roads laid out and used as a
highway was from Modena to connect with a highway in Orange County
leading to Newburgh. The turnpike leading from Milton to Tuttletown
in the present town of Gardiner and known as the Farmer’s Turnpike,
was laid out in 1809 by three commissioners, who completed the whole
distance of about twelve miles in three days. The turnpike to Modena
was opened in 1866-7. The roads are generally in good condition and
well cared for.

Prior to 1802 there were no stores in the town, so far as can be
learned. Before any were opened the inhabitants patronized the river
towns, but most of the trading, especially from the westerly portion of
the town, was at the general store of Gen. Joseph Hasbrouck, situated
just south of the Guilford Church in the present town of Gardiner.

CLINTONDALE.

This village is located in the extreme northeast of the town, and partly
within the southwesterly tongue of the town of Lloyd. Situated on the
westerly slope of a range of hills, surrounded by vineyards, orchards and
fertile fields, with no manufacturing establishments, it is clearly seen that
the chief resource of the place is from the soil.

TOWN OF PLATTEKILL.

335

There are three churches, Methodist Episcopal, Friends and Pente-
costal ; one school-house, a large, beautiful building, erected at a cost of
about $2,500, and known as District No. ii, of Plattekill, although partly
in the town of Lloyd. There are two general stores, a stove and tin store,
meat market, drug store, two blacksmith shops, a wagon shop, two tem-
perance hotels and one public hall. There is one physician, one lawyer
and one dentist. The railroad station, named after the village, is situated
about one and a half miles northwest of the village proper, on the line of
the Central New England.

The early settlement began about 1750, mostly from the southerly part
of the town, and was known as “Quaker Street,” until the post-office was
established in 1849, when it received its present name. The first general
store was kept in the house now owned by Anthony Sutton in 1810. John
Underhill kept a store in 1820. Harry Palmer kept another from 1836 to
1844. Erom 1832 to 1834 James Stewart kept a grocery and sold whiskey
near the Quaker meeting house. Among the other early merchants were
Benjamin Roberts, Jeremiah Relyea, D. L. Horton, W. B. Roberts, E. S.
Andrews, D. F. Geralds and John Lowell.

William Cornell invented and patented a waterproof overshoe in 1830,
which was the forerunner of the present “arctic” overshoe. These shoes
were manufactured by William Cornell and John Thorn for thirteen years
in various parts of the village.

During the time, or shortly after the Revolution, Zachariah Hasbrouck
erected a grist-mill near the “Stone Bridge,” which he continued to run
until 1830. James Turner built a grist-mill and saw-mill on another
stream in 1834, which was run for a number of years, when the flour
machinery was removed and a saw and planing plant was substituted.

Among the early ministers who preached in the Clintondale Meeting
House were Dr. Adna Heaton, Nathaniel Silleck, Nathaniel Thorn,
Stephen Wardell, Sarah Roberts and Esther Weeks, who became noted
throughout the United States.

In 1904, the Friends’ Society purchased a house and lot in the village,
which has since been used as a pastoral residence.

PLATTEKILL

Is located in the southerly part of the town along the Quassiick
Creek and is surrounded by fertile and productive land. It was known

336

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

as “Pleasant Valley,” or “The Valley,” until the post-office was estab-
lished February 24, 1819. It is the oldest hamlet in the town. General
stores, hotels and blacksmith shops have been there for more than one
hundred and fifty years. There is now a creamery, general store, tem-
perance hotel, blacksmith shop and a physician. There is a Methodist
church and parsonage, and the district school house. In this region, and
near Modena, is where the early settlers located.

The first store in the town was operated in 1802 by John Warner and
Daniel Sands; then followed others kept by Daniel Alsdorf, Solomon
Ostrander and Simon Alsdorf in 1805; in 1806, John R. Drake; 1809,
Robinson Penny, and 1819, Robert R. Underhill. Among other old mer-
chants were William Welch, James Bloomer, Jasper Crapsey, Daniel
Hunt, Charles Drake, Daniel Martin, DeWitt Garrison, John L. Gerov/,
Moses Everett, Elias Heaton, W. H. Fowler and James Dayton.

MODENA

Was first known as “Clark’s Corner,” the name being changed to
“Modena” in 1829. It is in the northwesterly part of the town, on the line
of the old Milton Turnpike, and has always been an important and
influential location, where the early physicians and lawyers settled and
most of the first town officials lived. Much of the wealth centered here
in the early days, and the most important stores were located here.
Among the early traders were John C. and Richard Brodhead, Abram A.
Deyo, Abram DuBois, Robert T. Everett, Martin Esterly, William P.
Storms, Christopher Constable, Philip Dusenberre, Joseph A. Deyo, Amos
DuBois, Russel Lock and Paul Smith.

ARDONIA

Is about two miles southwest of Clintondale, and about the same distance
east of Modena, on the old Milton Turnpike, formerly known as “Charles
Palmer’s Corner.” A post-office was established here July 27, 1882, and
a general store was opened about the same time by George T. Seymour,
which was afterward operated successively by Ennis F. Seymour and
Anson Armstrong. In 1863 a society known as the “Modena Literary
Society” was organized and a public hall erected, which was a credit to
the enterprise of the society and an ornament to the town. Many
noted speakers lectured in this hall, among them being Horace Greeley
and Theodore Tilton.

TOWN OF PLATTEKILL.

337

UNIONVILLE

Is a small settlement situated about two miles east of Plattekill, near
the foot of the Marlborough Mountains, on the highway leading from
Plattekill to Marlborough, known as the “Huckleberry Turnpike/’ There
is a collection of dwellings, a place for public worship called the “Chapel,”
and a school. '

TUCKERS CORNERS

Is another small settlement on the easterly border of the town at the
road crossing and just west of the Marlborough Mountains, on the old
Milton Turnpike. There has been a small grocery kept there at intervals
for many years, and at one time there was a blacksmith shop. A school
house is located just south of the cross-roads, known as District No. 3.

THE METHODIST CHURCH.

Concerning the history of the Methodist Church in Plattekill, we quote
the following from a sermon of the Rev. J. H. Lane : —

“Plattekill was, from the first, the garden of Methodism in southern
Ulster. Here a class was formed and regular preaching service held as
early as 1788, at the home of Aunt Huldah Hait. The Plattekill Church
was built in 1829. Daniel Ostrander, the first class leader, was afterward
licensed to preach and became prominent in the church. He was elected
eight times a delegate from the New York Annual Conference to the
General Conference. He died in 1843 after fifty years in the ministry.
Rev. Phineas Rice was another man of note in Methodism. Another
society was organized in the western part of the town at Modena;
the preaching place being for some years at the old stone school house on
the Modena and Highland Turnpike. The first church was built in 1826 on
the main road one half a mile from the present village, and was removed
to the present site under the pastorate of Rev. Charles Isham. Another
society was organized in the southeast part of the town at an early date
and a church built in 1840, under the pastorate of Rev. Z. N. Lewis, and
called the Rossville Church. The church at Clintondale was removed
from Lattintown in 1871 and rebuilt under the pastorate of Rev. G. S.
Keyser.”

Methodism was introduced here at an early date. In 1786, Rev.
Ezekiel Cooper and Rev. John McClaskey were appointed to East Jersey
by a Philadelphia Conference, which was a circuit embracing a large

338

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

portion of Sussex County, N. J. To this were added the counties of
Orange and Ulster, N. Y., forming what was known as a six weeks’
circuit. In Ulster County the first preaching was at the house of John
Woolsey at Milton, and Hendrick Deyo and Henry DuBois in the town of
New Paltz. At a Conference in Philadelphia, in 1788, the charge was
called the “Flander’s Circuit.” At this Conference Rev. Jesse Lee and
Rev. Aaron Hutchinson were appointed to “Flanders,” and during the
time they were in charge of the circuit the churches at Modena and east
Plattekill (Hait’s Hill) were organized. It is not known where the first
preaching was held.

The first M. E. Church in the town was built about half a mile south
of Modena near the school house in 1825, and it was called the “Platte-
kill Church.” In 1802, the charge was called “Ulster” in the New Jersey
District, Philadelphia Conference, and in 1803 it was included in the
Albany District, and Gideon R. Knowlton and John Crawford were
appointed to the Circuit. In 1804 the Albany District was changed to the
New York Conference and Ulster then became an appointment of that
Conference. Another change in the district was made in 1811, when
Ulster came in the Hudson River District, with William Jewett and E.
Hibbard as Circuit preachers. In 1824 the charge was called New Paltz,
and Nicholas White was appointed to the Circuit. In 1825-26 Bradley
Selleck was the preacher in charge, and during his term in 1826, the
Plattekill Church was erected, as above stated.

In 1829, during the pastorate of Rev. Eben Smith, the East Plattekill
Church was built. In 1795, Daniel Ostrander was licensed to preach. At
the age of 19, Dr. Phineas Rice was one of the preachers of the Circuit.
In 1830-31 Benjamin Griffin and Valentine Buck served the Circuit,
and in 1832 the Newburgh District was formed and FI. Wing was
appointed to the charge; in 1833 and 1834 E. Washburn, J. D. McFar-
land and D. Webster; in 1835, J. W. Lefever, J. Shaw and Mr. Ferguson ;
in 1836, C. Stillman and J. Shaw; in 1837, Valentine Buck and E. Craw-
ford; in 1838, J. C. Green and Eben Smith. In 1840 the name of the
appointment was changed to Plattekill and New Paltz, Ira Ferris and R.
K. Reynolds, preachers. In 1841, Ira Ferris and M. D. C. Crawford were
the preachers.

In 1842, Ira Ferris reported preaching places at Plattekill, East Platte-
kill, New Paltz Landing, Krom Elbow and Dayton Hollow. Conference

TOWN OF PLATTEKILL.

339

then appointed Edward Aldrin and Eli Westbrook to the Circuit; 1843,
Edward Aldrin and J. W. Lindsay; 1844, Thomas Newman and J. W.
Lindsay; 1845, Thomas Newman and John Davy; 1846, C. W. Carpen-
ter and J. Reynolds; 1847, C. W. Carpenter and J. K. Still; 1848-9, A. S.
Larkin and J. C. Washburn. In 1850 the Circuit was divided ; three
more appointments had been added during the pastorate of Thomas New-
man, viz. : Tuthill, Clintondale and Old Paltz. By this division the

Plattekill Church, East Plattekill and Clintondale were set off by them-
selves and established into a charge called Plattekill.

In 1854 J. C. Brodhead donated a lot for a new church at Modena
Corners. The new church was built in 1855 a cost of $4,528.18, and
dedicated by Rev. L. W. Vincent, Presiding Elder of the Newburgh Dis-
trict, free from debt. In 1856-7, Uriah Messiter was pastor; 1858-9,
William Ostrander; 1860-1, William Stevens; 1862, William Blake;
1863-4, Mr. VanDeusen; 1865-6, J. C. Hoyt; 1867-9, M. Curtis;
1870, Angelo Ostrander; 1871-2, J. H. Lane. In 1871-2, the East Platte-
kill Church was repaired, enlarged and a bell put in the steeple. The
Society of Clintondale purchased the old M. E. Church at Latintown for
$600, and placed it on the site donated by J. J. Hull and John Turner for
$1,100 more, making a total of $1,700. The church was then removed
and erected in 1872, and dedicated by Rev. G. H. Covey. Pastors : in
1872-4, S. G. Keyser; 1874-5, J. G. Slater; 1875-6, D. H. Hanaburgh ;
1876-9, W. W. Shaw; 1879-81, J. O. Kern; 1881-4, R. H. Travis;
1884-6, M. R. Lent; 1886-8, E. H. Hofficker; 1888-90, J. H. Michell;
1890-1, S. J. McCutcheon ; 1891-5, G. C. Francis.

In 1894 the church building at Clintondale was sold to John H. Hull for
$100, and the present elegant house of worship was erected the same
year. The new church was dedicated June 20, 1894, and paid for on the
day of dedication. The cost was a little over $5,000. Pastors : in 1895-8,
W. R. Hunt; 1898-9, W. W. Wilcox; 1899-02, F. B. Crispell ; 1902-6,
Emmet Shew; 1906-7, R. J. Trevorrow. The Plattekill Valley Church
organization was incorporated three times, viz. : December 7, 1846, Jan-
uary 29, i860, and July 6, 1875. The other three churches in the town
have always been presided over by a single pastor, but this church has
been a separate charge. The first church was erected in 1840, and has
been modified and repaired at different times, and is, at present one of the
most elegant and substantial church structures in the town, with a large
and flourishing congregation.

340

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

THE REFORMED CHURCtI AT NEW HURLEY.

On November 8, 1770, the Consistory of the Church of Shawangunk
met the communicants of New Marlborough at the house of Andrew
DuBois. Rev. D. Romeyn, from Marlborough, presided over the meeting.
Permission was asked to form a church near the east bank of the Wall-
kill, assigning among other reasons that “our Communicants and neigh-
bors are withdrawn from us on all sides, the one part to the Baptists (in
the valley), and the other part to the Episcopalians (at St. Andrew’s).
We fear that without provision is made for us we shall all be scattered
and brought to nothing.” The first petition remained unanswered. A
second petition was presented to the Classis and that body appointed a
committee, which visited the locality of New Hurley on October 17 and
18, 1770, and inquired into all the circumstances, and finally reported
that the petitioners “be permitted to accomplish their desire to be consti-
tuted into a church with this condition, viz. : That they locate their church
edifice on the high ground where the land is sufficiently flat in New Hurley
and not along the Wallkill. A site for the church was selected, consisting
of one acre, and purchased, and the first house of worship was erected in
1774. This was succeeded by the present church in 1835. The first
church was a building 30x40 feet. Foot-stoves were used for many years,
and when these stoves were introduced they were placed on a foundation
erected on the backs of seats.

The society was duly incorporated December 6, 1790, by Stephen
Goetschins, minister; Christoffel Ostrander, William Graham, Simeon
Alsdorf, Wilhelmus Ostrander, Johannes Alsdorf, Ebenezer Brown,
Arthur Masten, Arthur Terwilliger, Elders and Deacons.

THE PENTECOST CHURCH.

An Episcopal Church was erected at Clintondale in 1879, under the
direction of Rev. Mr. Johnson, rector at Highland, N. Y., but it never
developed any denominational strength and was seldom used for ser-
vices. The building and grounds were finally sold to the Pentecostal
denomination, which considerably improved the property by erecting sheds
and grading the grounds, and regular services have been held in the
church since that time.

POST-OFFICES.

There are now four post offices in the town : Ardonia, established July
27, 1882; Clintondale, May 15, 1849; Modena, formerly “Clark’s

TOWN OF PLATTEKILL.

341

Corner/^ June i, 1826, changed to Modena, June 15, 1829, and Plattekill,
established February 24, 1819. The New Hurley post-office was estab-
lished January 23, 1834, and discontinued July 31, 1905.

PHYSICIANS.

Dr. Jonathan Bailey was among the first to practice medicine in Platte-
kill. He came in 1800. Dr. John Hunt followed in 1814. Among other
doctors in that section were Dr. Charles Drake, Dr. Uriah Drake, Dr,
Cannon, Dr. Joshua Garrison, Dr. Hiram Howland, Dr. Elijah Oster-
houdt and Dr. Becker, who is now located at Plattekill.

At Clintondale, Dr. Adna Heaton was the first physician. He came
from New Paltz, was a member of the Friend’s Society, and a preacher
in that Church. Among other physicians who located here were Dr.
David Carpenter, Dr. Eben H. Heston, Dr. John Mann, Dr. Joseph E.
Freston and Dr. William G. Birdsall. Dr. Heston is still in active practice
here. At Modena, Dr. William Dusenberre, who came from Rockland
County, was perhaps the first physician to locate. Other physicians were
Dr. Brodhead, Dr. Daniel L. Everett, Dr. Stephen Ostrander, Dr. Charles
Hait, Dr. Everett Hasbrouck, Dr. Maurice Wurts, Dr. Stephen Gerow,
Dr. Theo. Milspaugh, Dr. Hiram Terry and Dr. Henry P. Chase. There
has been no physician at Modena since Heston left in 1880.

LAWYERS.

The legal profession has had a small representation in this town.
John Cole, the first lawyer, commenced the practice of his profession at
Milton, and moved to Modena in 1818, where he opened an office and
continued to practice until his death in December, 1854. Oscar Theodore
Noyes graduated from Yale College, studied law at Kingston, was
admitted to the bar in 1846, and practiced here until his death in 1854.
Amos P. Cotlaw was a lawyer at Modena in 1820, and there has been no
lawyer located here since 1854.

Solomon G. Young was admitted to the bar May, 1854, and began prac-
tice at Clintondale, where he remained for six years, when he moved to
Highland, where he continued until his death in 1884. Solomon G. Car-
penter opened an office in Clintondale in 1880, and remained about six
months, when he moved to New York City. In 1884 he moved from
New York to Highland, where he has since continued to practice. DeWitt
W. Ostrander came to Clintondale in 1870, was admitted to the bar in

342

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

November, 1880, and began the practice of his profession at Clintondale
in 1881, where he has continued.

The following citizens of the town have served in public office: John
C. Brodhead, Representative in Congress 1831, 1833, 1839. Sheriffs

of Ulster County: John C. Brodhead, 1825 ; Derrick DuBois, 1828; John
Everett, 1834; Charles Brodhead, 1846; Maurice Wurts, 1855; Abram A.
Deyo, Jr., 1858.

Abram A. Deyo was State Senator from 1843 to 1846, and the fol-
lowing persons served as Members of Assembly: Derrick Westbrook,
1816; John C. Brodhead, 1822; Albert Carpenter, 1837, 1839; David L.
Bernard, 1840; Solomon P. Thorn, 1898, 1900, 1902.

THE MILITARY HISTORY.

During the Revolution, this town formed a part of Marlborough, and
its early war history is therefore included in the history of that town. But
this sparsely settled section contributed its full share of men in that
struggle. The military forces of the Colony and State during the Revo-
lution were divided into three classes: The Line, The Levies and The
Military. The soldiers from this section belonged to the latter class. Some-
times a regiment would be called out several times a year, and again it
might not be needed for an entire year. At one call they were in one
regiment or company, and at another in some other. For that reason it is
difficult to trace the men.

The following is a list of Revolutionary soldiers who served from that
part of the town of Marlborough which was set off in 1800 and named
Plattekill: Capt. David Ostrander, Lieut. Wilhelmus Ostrander, Chris-

tophel Ostrander, Simeon Ostrander, Isaac Garrison, John Dusenberre,
John Snyder, Samuel Dusenberre.

f^rior to the war of 1812, the town had been set apart from Marlbor-
ough, and it contributed men to the national army. But this roll of honor
cannot be definitely made up now.

Again in the Civil War of 1861, the town of Plattekill gave patriotic
support, furnishing over 150 men for the Army and Navy of the Union.
Ten of these belonged to the Negro race. Some thirty or more died in the
service of their country.

TOWN OF ROCHESTER.

343

CHAPTER XXVII.

TOWN OF ROCHESTER.

By Charles E. Foote.

ON June 25, 1703, the English Crown issued letters patent for a
tract of land known as the Rochester Patent, and described
as follows:

“All the tract or parcel of land lying and being in the county of Ulster
aforesaid, and beginning at the south bounds of the land of Jan Van Camp,
now in his possession; from thence running in a south-east line, to the
land of Capt. John Evans, and so along the northwest bounds of the said
Capt. John Evans, his land, till you come over against the said hills ; from
thence in a northwest line to the great mountains, commonly called the
Blue Hills : thence northeast something northerly along the said hills to
the bounds of Marbletown ; and thence along the bounds of Marbletown
to the place where first begun.”

The tract thus enclosed included not only the present town of Rochester,
but the town of Wawarsing and a portion of Sullivan County. The town
as at present organized, is bounded on the northeast by Olive and Marble-
town; on the southeast by Marbletown, New Paltz and Gardiner; on the
southwest by Wawarsing, and on the northwest by Wawarsing and
Denning. Its area is 43,982 acres, of which more than half is in a high
state of cultivation.

The southeastern and northwestern edges of the town are bordered by
high ranges of mountains. On the southeast is the Shawangunk moun-
tain range, which divides the Rondout from the Wallkill valleys ; on the
northwest, a continuation of the Catskills, with their tops rising high in
the air.

The patent was issued in the names of Captain Joachim Schoonmaker,
Moses DePuy, and Colonel Henry Beekman, as trustees for settlers, and
in the possession of the town clerk are the original records of their action
in the distribution of lands. This venerable volume, now more than 200
years old, is in an excellent state of preservation, and the writing is per-

344

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

fectly legible, though both the paper and ink are becoming faded. The
covers of the record book seem to be made from sheets of old copy-books
pasted together, while the back is of the old time bookbinder’s ‘‘pigskin.”
Previous to the issue of the patent in 1703, there were a number of
settlers in the town. The Anna Beck patent was dated in 1686, and the
Joachim Staats patent in 1688, and the Rochester patent alludes to a “saw-
mill” and a “corn-mill” as being already built. There is evidence showing
that a church existed as early as 1700, and perhaps before that time. The
Documentary History of the State gives the population as 334 persons
at the date of the issue of the patent, but other contemporary facts do
not bear out so great a number. There were probably fifty or sixty per-
sons, belonging to the following families :

Jan Gerritse Decker, Lodewyck Hornbeck,

Seendert Kool, Sr., Anthony Hornbeck,

William De La Montaigne, Tennis Osterhoudt,

Jan Cartwright, Gysbert Van Garde,

Andries Davies, David DuBois.

The records in the town clerk’s office are full and complete. There are
maps of old surveys and descriptions that hold good to the present day.
The trustees began business at once.

A poll list, evidently used as a tally sheet at the election of trustees in
the year 1740, contains a list of voters, but it cannot be told at this time
whether it was a complete list of those entitled tO' vote, or only those whose
votes were cast. It was probably the latter. It forms, however, an excel-
lent guide as to the settlers at that period. The list is as follows :

Tennis Osterhondt,
Cryn Osterhondt,
Petrns Osterhondt,
Ceaxmon Coddebock,
John Schoonmaker,
Moses Depny, Jr.,
Jacobns Qnick,
Johanis Hendrickson,
Wallen Cool,
Abraham Bevier,
Peter Kortright,

Jan Osterhondt,
Charles Denniston,
James Simpson,
Jacobns Depny,
Daniel Schoonmaker,
Johannis Hoornbeck,
Jacob Rntsen,
Jacobus Hoornbeck,
Laurens Kortright,

Cornelius Wynkoop,
Philip DuBois,

Jacobus Swartout,
Mathis Louw,

Egbert Dewitt,

Peter Westbrook,

Jacob Vandermark,

Jan Westbrook,

Jacob Dewitt,

Cornelius Ver Nooy,
Cornelius Louw,

Rotsert Kettel,

Neckelas Keator,
Benjamin Schoonmaker,
Joggum Schoonmaker,
Jacob Hardenbergh,
Jacobus Schoonmaker,
Teunis Meddah,

Efrom Cambers.

TOWN OF ROCHESTER.

345

The first record of a religious organization begins with the Dutch
Reformed in 1701, but outside the fact that there was a church organiza-
tion, and that it was presided over at times by Rev. Petrus Vas, and
others, little seems to be known. In 1732 the members of the church in
Rochester subscribed to the support of Rev. G. W. Mancius at Kingston,
with the provision that they should be allowed to withdraw whenever
other arrangements were made. Rev. Mancius visited Rochester fre-
quently and preached as late as 1749. A student named Jacobus Freling-
buysen was sent to Holland in 1751 by the churches of Rochester, Wa-
warsing and Marbletown. He completed his studies at Utrecht and was
ordained by the Classis at Amsterdam, but died on the passage home.
Rev. Theodorus Frelinghuysen of Albany officiated occasionally, as did
Rev. J. Schuneman of Catskill. Henricus Frelinghuysen, brother of the
deceased Jacobus Frelinghuysen, was the subject of considerable cor-
respondence between the church at Rochester and the Classis at Amster-
dam, the church desiring that he be ordained in this country on account
of the expense and loss by the death of the brother. He was finally
licensed, and, tradition says, ordained, but there seems no record of the
ordination. Two weeks after his induction into the ministry he was
taken with smallpox and died. His remains were buried under the pulpit
at the old Marbletown church. After this there was no regular pastor
until 1766, when Dirick Romeyn was ordained and officiated at Rochester,
Marbletown and Wawarsing for nine years. Then for several years Rev.
Reyner Van Nest, of Shawangunk, made monthly visits; in 1781 Rev.
Jacob Rutsen Hardenbergh took charge of the three churches, but the
Princeton College, giving him the title of Doctor of Divinity, he was
called in 1785 to become the president of Queens, later Rutger's College,
at New Brunswick, New Jersey.

There were several pastors who occupied the charge for a few years
each. Rev. Abram Van Horne, Rev. Garret Mandeville, Rev. Ralph Wes-
tervelt, and some stated supplies, until 1814, when Rochester, Wawarsing
and the Clove called Rev. James Murphy.

There is no record of schools in Rochester until after the Revolution,
when the State educational system was established. But there is every
indication in the town records that there were good schools. The names
and work of many of the second and third, and sometimes the fourth,
generation of the original settlers appear in these old records, and the

346

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

chirography, as well as the language, denote that the writers were edu-
cated men, as education at that day was considered.

Rochester seems to have suffered comparatively little from the Indians
from the time of its settlement to the beginning of the Revolution. Oa
October 14, 1757, there was an attack on the house of Peter Jan, in which
his daughter and two soldiers stationed there were killed, and the house
set on fire. Another ranger, according to the report of Col. Hasbrouck
to Lieutenant Governor Delancey, made a good defense, used all the
arms in the house which were charged, beat the enemy off and brought
off Jan’s wife and two daughters to Captain Brodhead’s, a mile away.
Jan and his two sons were in the field. Next night the regiment marched
but discovered nothing.

The fort at that time was at Pine Bush, in the corner of the road at the
top of Deyo’s hill. This old fort stood for many years, but was burned
in 1868. In early times a garrison was maintained there, which accounts,
in a large degree, for the general immunity of the people from the vio-
lence of the natives. The property where the fort stood is now owned
by Andrew B. Van Wagonen.

On August 5, 1857, J. H. Van Wagonen, of Kyserike, while repairing
his house, which was the old homestead of the family, found behind a
window casing, the following document, written just one hundred years
before :

“To Benjamin Van Wagonen, Jr., Greeting:

“I do hereby command you in his Majesty’s name for to warn all the men whose
names are wrote on the back side hereof, to be and appear in Kingson, at the house
of Coll. Josiah Hasbrouck this twelfth day of September, to march from there
with me directly to Albany and hereoff fail nott.

“Given under my hand this Sth day of August 1757.

“Jacob Hornbeck."

On the back were the names of

Cornelius Van Wagonen, Ephraim Depuy.

Thomas Graham, Petere Harp,

Edward Wood, Jr., Daniel Wood,

Henry Harp, Johin Louis,

Aurdt Van Wagen,

The town is bordered by ranges of mountains on its northwestern and
southeastern sides, and a rolling upland fills the space between. The
Rondout Creek flows across the town in a northeasterly direction and has
as tributaries from the south. Stony Creek, Sanders Kill and Peters Kill.
Coxing Kill also passes through the southeast portion and empties into the

TOWN OF ROCHESTER.

347

Rondout in Rosendale. The principal tributary to the Rondout from the
north is the Mettacahonts Creek, which rises in the hills in the extreme
northern point of the town. Into this many streams flow, including the
Mombaccus Creek, or Mill Brook, as it is sometimes called, which rises
in nearly the same neighborhood as the Mettacahonts but takes a more
southerly course and adds the Fantine Kill to its waters before discharg-
ing into the stream a short distance above the village of Accord. There
are also the Fountain Kill, the Beaver Dam Creek, and many smaller
streams, which swell the parent stream. In the western end of the town
is Vernooy Creek, which rises in the same neighborhood as the Mettaca-
honts and the Mombaccus, and taking a course almost due south passes
into the town of Wawarsing, where it empties into the Rondout near
Port Benjamin.

The soil of the valleys is a sandy loam, and that of the upland and hills
between the water courses principally gravelly loam. Both are very
productive.

Lake Mohonk is an attractive feature of the town. It has long
been regarded among the most desirable summer lake regions in
the United States by the better class of tourists because of its charm-
ing location, picturesque wildness and its careful and progressive
management. Among its patrons are some of the best people in the
country, and even the large hotel accommodations have usually been
inadequate. The first summer boarding house there was established by
John F. Stokes nearly fifty years ago, when the place was locally known
as 'Taltz Point.” The property was purchased by Albert K. Smiley in
1879, and he at once began to build and develop it in the most energetic
and practical manner, spending thousands of dollars every year upon the
mountain roads, walks and various picturesque structures, with singular
intelligence, good taste and judgment. Being a great lover of nature, and
most enthusiastic in his admiration of this marvelous region, he knew
just what to do to make these rare native attractions available and enjoy-
able without disturbing Nature’s handiwork. He has thus labored there
for thirty-seven years, and to-day this mountain estate embraces 5,000
acres, upon which over fifty miles of excellent roadways have been con-
structed, with numerous mountain paths, attractive rustic summer houses,
seats, arbors, bridges and various other picturesque structures, at a cost
of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

348

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

The lake is a charming bit of placid mountain water, which is held in
a basin of solid rock 1,245 above tide. Three hundred feet above the
water is “Sky-Top” mountain, and all around is a wall of tumbled rock
piled in sublime confusion, with a labyrinth of wild variety and beauty
which challenges the admiration and wonder of every beholder, and sur-
passes anything of its kind east of the Rocky Mountains. The large hotel
at the north end of the lake accommodates about 450 guests. Two impor-
tant public conferences are held here every year, the International Arbi-
tration Conference in the early summer, and the Indian Conference late
in autumn. This hotel is in the town of Marbletown, as the boundary
line crosses the lake west of the house.

When it is stated that Mohonk has been conducted strictly on the
temperance plan from its inception, with a code of Quaker blue-laws
rigidly enforced at all times, the great success of the enterprise seems the
more marvelous.

The Minnewaska Lake resorts, some miles south of Mohonk, known as
the Cliff House, and the Wildmere, are alike charming in scenic beauty.
The lake is larger than Mohonk, the cliffs higher. It was owned by a
brother of Mr. Smiley until his death, and is now run by his sons. It is
included in another vast mountain estate, which reaches west to
another beautiful Shawangunk lake shown as “Awosting,” which, how-
ever, is in the town of Wawarsing. All these names are of Indian
origin.

During the Revolutionary period Rochester was intensely loyal, some
two hundred and seventy men signing the Articles of Association at the
beginning, and the names of the families in the town being well repre-
sented in the different regiments of militia. In the First Regiment it
would seem that the two Captains Schoonmaker, Hendrick and Edward,
Major Adrian Wynkoop, Lieutenant Abraham Van Aken and several
others, must have been Rochester people. Adjutant Denniston of the
Second, bears a name well known to the records of Rochester ; in the
Third Regiment, Colonel John Cantine, Lieut. Col. Jacob Hoornbeck,
Quartermaster Philip Hoornbeck, Captains Cantine, Hardenbergh, Kort-
right, Frederick and Joachim Schoonmaker, Lieutenants Brodhead and
Van Wagonen, and several others, present an array of Rochester names,
while the Fourth Regiment, with an adjutant and a Captain Schoonmaker,
Captains Hoornbeek, Cantine and Swart, Lieutenants Cantine, Harden-

TOWN OF ROCHESTER.

349

bergh, Depuy and Osterhoudt, all indicate that Rochester held a high
place in supplying officers as well as men for that great conflict.

During the war there was much trouble from the Tories and Indians.
In 1777 or 1778 the Indians, presumably led by Tories, attacked the
houses of Shurker, Miller and Baker at Pine Bush. The two former
were killed and the latter was probably carried away and subsequently
killed, as his remains were not found. Captain Benjamin Kortright got
a band together and attacked the Indians, driving them away. It was
found that the women and children had not been harmed. Captain Kort-
right pursued the Indians as far as his supplies would permit and
returned.

At that time, according to a pamphlet published in 1846, and assumed
to be reliable, there were 200 to 300 troops at the fort on Honkhill. An
expedition was fitted out, which was placed in charge of Lieutenant John
Graims, or Grahams, who volunteered for the service. He only took
eighteen men, one sergeant and a corporal. They planned to intercept
the Indians by getting ahead of them, and did so, but the Indians in great
number took them by surprise and shot them down. Three men escaped,
one of them Abraham Van Campen, having been detailed to hunt game
for the expedition, not being present at the massacre. A large body of
troops set out at once, but their only duty was to bury the dead; the
Indians had gone into the wilds.

In 1778 a petition was presented to Governor Clinton by the people of
Rochester asking for greater protection against the Tories and Indians.
As no reference is made to the Pine Bush and Grahamsville massacres,
it is probable that the petition was made previous to the attack. The
document was signed by Captain Benjamin Kortright, Captain Joachim
Schoonmaker, Lieutenants Dirick and Frederic Westbrook and Jacobus
B'ruyn, Jr., Ensign Jacob Hoornbeck, Jacobus Wynkoop, Moses Depuy,
John Sleight and many others.

In the civil organization the trustees provided for in the patent were
the dominant factors of government. They seem to have been the only
government until 1709, when a supervisor, two assessors and a con-
stable and collector were elected. The first supervisor was Capt. Joachim
Schoonmaker; the assessors were Moses Depuy and Lodewick Hoorn-
beck, while Jan Cortrecht was constable and collector. In 1710 a sur-
veyor of roads was elected, Hermanus Decker being chosen.

350

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

From 1713 to 1729 there is no record of town officers except Trustees^
except for the single year of 1717, when the officials are named as fol-
lows : Supervisor, David DuBois ; Constable and Collector, Cornelius Cole ;
Assessors, Moses Depuy, Sr., and Johannis Ver Nooy; Surveyors of
Highways, Derrick Rosekraus and John Van Camp, Jr. There is every
indication, however, that the organization was practically continuous
after 1709. The records give a list of the trustees for one hundred years,
elected annually, after the Revolutionary War, and the changes brought
about by the State government, the final settlement of the land titles
under the constitution, their duties became perfunctory, and their elec-
tion of no moment.

After the adoption of a State Constitution, and its permanent estab-
lishment by the arbitrament of war, long, bloody and costly in men and
money, Rochester, as did other towns in Ulster County and elsewhere,
turned its energy and productive capacity again to the establishment of
material prosperity. The school system was organized, new church
organizations gradually came into existence, new industries were opened
up ; greater area of land was planted ; more saw-mills, grist-mills and
tanneries were constructed. The denudation of the forest lands served
the double purpose of supplying the mills and adding to the arable area.
Thus passed more than two generations of progressive civilization, pro-
lific in its production of American men and women, brainy and energetic
in its accumulation of material advantages, and sending off from the body
of its population, into other parts of this, and other States, the brains and
broad ideas, the bone and sinew, as well as the means, which has broad-
ened and enriched the development of the country from the Atlantic to
the Pacific.

There is a record of the appointment of Abraham T. E. Dewitt, An-
drew Bevier, Jacobus Bruyn, Richard Brodhead, Jacobus Wynkoop and
Richard Davis as school commissioners of Rochester in 1796, and Philip
D. Bevier, Benjamin Kortright and Jacobus Bruyn in 1797, 1798, 1799,
and 1800. There is no further action recorded until 1813, when the
modern school system was organized under the law of 1812. From that
time until the change in the law in 1814, school commissioners and in-
spectors were elected annually. Practically all of them came from the
early families of the town. In 1813 the first school-tax of record is noted.

In the Newtown district, Simeon J. Van Wagonen taught one year,.

TOWN OF ROCHESTER.

351

from January 9, 1798, to January 30, 1799, for twenty-eight pounds and
board. Barbazon Nugent followed him for three months, beginning
February 4, for ten shillings a week and ‘‘to find himself.” Jacobus
Shenich and Cornelius Hoornbeck were the trustees.

Isaac Frinch taught the Mombaccus school for the year ending Feb-
ruary 12, 1795, for twenty-seven pounds, ten shillings “and to be
boarded,” and was employed the next year at forty pounds and “to be
boarded.” He was still teaching at the same salary in 1799, according
to the report of Jacob Coddington, Henry Dewitt, Jr., and Cornelius
Hoornbeck, trustees, so it must be assumed that he was a good teacher
and gave general satisfaction.

The Kyserike school was presided over by Henry J. Hoornbeck, from
May 14, 1798, to March 18, 1799, at a salary o'f seventy-five dollars a
year. The Pleasant Ridge school, near the Coxing Clove, was taught by
Benjamin Louw.

The Luren Kill school was taught, December 7, 1795, to March 7, 1796,
by Levi Bradley. The trustees were Richard Brodhead and Conradt
Bevier. Elizah Devoe taught the school at Fantine Kill from April 9,
1795? March i, 1796. Andries Bevier and Simon Bevier were the
trustees.

A work of vast importance to the town of Rochester was the construc-
tion of the Delaware and Hudson canal in the valley of the Rondout.
This enterprise was incorporated April 23, 1823, and the full employ-
ment of labor, and the home market for supplies, created by the large
force of workmen during the five years of the work, gave a mighty im-
petus to agricultural development. Many fine residences were built dur-
ing that period, some of which are still standing. The opening of the
canal in 1828 gave an opportunity to place agricultural products in the
large markets cheaply; it also made an outlet which permitted the fuller
operation of the bluestone quarries and the easier shipments of the Esopus
millstones. The canal was enlarged at great expense in 1842 and again
in 1851.

The churches in the town, except the Dutch church, the early history
of which has been mentioned, are as follows : The Reformed Church at
Cherrytown, which was organized in 1858. The Methodist Episcopal
at Port Jackson in 1847; t^3,t at Alligerville in 1857, and that at Cherry-
town in 1867.

352

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

The territory of the town of Rochester has been changed materially
since the original patent in 1703. The formal incorporation under the
State laws was in 1788. In 1789 a portion of the territory was annexed
to Delaware County and is included in the present town of Middletown ;
in 1798 the town of Neversink, Sullivan County, was separated from it;
in 1806 Wawarsing was created from a part of Rochester, but some of
the territory was returned in 1823. The town of Gardiner was taken
off in 1853, leaving Rochester as it stands at present.

The canal was abandoned in 1899, and the railroad, which had been
talked off ‘Tor forty years, more or less,” and surveyed several times,
was opened in 1902.

For the Civil War Rochester furnished one hundred and sixty-two
soldiers, according to the most reliable information. These were scat-
tered through the various regiments and parts of regiments raised in
Ulster County, with a fair sprinkling of representation in regiments from
other localities. Several officers of prominence were among them.

Among the historic places of interest in the town of Rochester arc
the following residences which date back to ante-Revolutionary times;

The old stone house formerly known as the Depuy homestead, now
owned by Lucas E. Schoonmaker. The stone house owned and occupied
by Cyrus Schoonmaker, which was built by his ancestors in 1756. The
old Hoornbeck homestead in Whitfield, now owned by Lincoln Dunn.
The Philip Hoornbeck homestead, now owned by Morris Myers. The
old Davis Sahler homestead, now owned by the New Paltz savings bank.

Of the grist-mills which were once plentifully distributed along the
creeks, only two now remain. One of these is located at Pataukun, and
is known as the Wilkinson mill. It stands on the site originally granted
by the trustees of the township to Anthony and Joost Hoornbeck in 1709;
the other is located at Mill Hook, and owned at present by Friend Wilk-
low. It stands on the site granted to Capt. Joachim Schoonmaker in.
1703, where his saw-mill then stood.

The Schoonmaker family of Rochester presents a very interesting his-
tory, not only by reason of its numerous members, but also> on account
of the influence which it has always maintained in civil affairs, and in
the military history of the town, county and State. There has never
been a war in which the State was engaged, that one or more members
of the family were not engaged in it, nor has there been a period, except

TOWN OF ROCHESTER.

353

possibly a year or two, since the time of the original settlement of the
town, when there was not a Schoonmaker in public office. The family
as a whole, is well-to-do ; and so numerous have been the intermarriages
during the various generations, that a large proportion of the population
possess Schoonmaker blood, more or less remote. Mr. John J. Schoon-
maker, the present Town Clerk, is the eighth generation from the orig-
inal settlers, whose son was trustee under the patent.

Among the old Rochester merchants were Joshua Dumond, William
N. McDonald, James Gillespie, and Joachim Schoonmaker. Among the
early tavern-keepers were Caty Depuy, Henry T. Oosterhout, Andries
Dewitt, Elizabeth Dewitt, Elisha Hoornbeck, Cornelius P. Low, Benjamin
Coddington, Peter Aldrich, and many others. Dr. Dewitt was an early
physician in the seventeenth century, and Dr, Louis D. Bevier some
years later.

Only 744 votes were cast in the town at the general election last year
when the taxable property w^as assessed at $795,101. The present town
area is placed at 51,575 acres.

354

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

TOWN OF ROSENDALE.
By Charles E. Foote.

HE town of Rosendale is located immediately west of the town of

Esopus, from which it is separated by the Wallkill and Rondout.

Further to the north a small portion of its eastern boundary’ is
made by the town of Ulster. It is bounded on the south by the town of
New Paltz, on the west by the town of Marbletown, and on the north-
west by the town of Hurley, the northernmost portion being the apex of
an acute angle. It has an area of 11,413 acres.

The town was erected by act of General Assembly, April 26, 1844,
parts of Hurley, New Paltz and Marbletown being taken in its forma-
tion. A stiff fight was maintained for some years by the people of the
section for separation, on the ground of convenience in official business,
and the untiring energy and persistence was tardily, but finally rewarded
by the act named. The law thus enacted gives the boundaries as follows :

“All the territory hereinafter described, agreeable to a map made by Jacob A.
Snyder, being part of the towns of Hurley, Marbletown and New Paltz, in the
county of Ulster, shall be and hereby is set off into a new town by the name of
Rosendale, commencing at the Wallkill on the bounds of the farm of Jonathan
Deyo, late of New Paltz, deceased, and the farm now in possession of Abraham
Relyea; thence running along said bounds north eighty-four and a fourth degrees
west, eighty-seven chains to the bounds of Marbletown, on the farm of John J.
Stokes ; thence north ten degrees west, one hundred and seventy-five chains to the
towing-paths of Delaware and Hudson canal, northeasterly as it winds and turns
about, thirty chains, to the cement quarry of William P. Cole; thence north twenty-
seven degrees west, one hundred and one chains sixty-four links to a white-oak tree
standing at the south side of the road leading to a stone ridge on the farm of
John D. Gillespie; thence north thirty-five degrees east, two hundred and thirty-
three chains twenty links, to a stake and stones on the farm of James Harden-
burgh, now in the possession of Mr,. Weeks ; thence horth seventy-four degrees
east, one hundred and seventy chains to the bounds of Kingston at a chestnut
tree on the farm of Mrs. Pink; thence along the said bounds of Kingston south
one hundred and fifty-seven chains to the Rondout Creek; thence up along the
same southerly as it winds and turns, one hundred and twenty-five chains to where
the Wallkill intersects said Rondout; thence up alongside Wallkill to the place
of beginning.”

The Rondout flows northeasterly through the center of the town, and
there are a number of small streams tributary to it and to the Wallkill,,

TOWN OF ROSENDALE.

355

which forms the southern portion of its eastern boundary. One of the
noticeable physical features is a chain of lakes called the “Binnewaters,”
and named by the numerals one to five inclusive. The first is on the line
between Rosendale and Hurley, and is of considerable size; the second
and third are almost due south, within a short distance to the southwest.

The surface is a rolling and hilly upland, much broken in places, with
deep gorges and ravines, presenting some remarkably attractive scenery.
There are plains in the eastern part along the valley, which originally
gave rise to the name of the locality, which is found in old records as
far back as 1700, nearly a century and a half before the region received
the name by law.

In its early settlement the record of Rosendale is found in that of the
three towns from which parts were taken for its creation. The names of
a majority of its people can be recognized as being those families, who,
in the early days, settled Hurley, Marbletown and New Paltz. The
natural, and, in fact, the only logical inference, is, that the families whose
names were originally recorded in those towns, and in later years
appeared in Rosendale, had settled in those portions of the older organ-
izations which were taken to form the new town of Rosendale. Reference
is made to those towns for the earlier records.

Among the land papers at Albany is a description of 963 acres of land
in '‘a place called Roasindale, on the south side of the Rondout River,”
surveyed by Philip Wells, surveyor for Jacob Rutsen. This is dated
May 28, 1685. Another survey and description of similar kind must
have been located where the W allkill enters the Rondout, as it is described
being “672 acres of land lying upon both sides of Rondout Kill or river,
including part of the Paules river,” surveyed for William Fisher, dated
two days before Rutsen's, May 26, 1685.

October 21, 1723, Jacob Rutsen received a deed from the town of
Hurley for 600 acres of land, located apparently to the south and east of
his previous tract.

In the assessment roll of Marbletown for 1811, the following names
seem to constitute a practically complete list of those families in the part
of that town which was subsequently detached in the creation of Rosen-
dale. In that list is embraced the following:

Abraham Auchmoody, Charles Burr,

John Churchwell, Jacob Coutant,

Abraham Coutant, Oswall Dewall, ",

356

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

Andrew I. DuBois,
Cornelius A. Delemeter,
Christian Deits,

Frederick I, Elmendorf,
Cornelius Keyser,

Moses Keator,

Jacobus and other Keators,
John Sluyter,

Henry Snyder,

Jacob Snyder,

John Sammons,

Cornelius D. Sluyter,

Heber Williams,

Abraham Deits,

Philip Dewall,

Jacobus Elmendorf, Jr.,
Joel Mine,

Benjamin A. Krum,
George Patterson,
Abraham Sluyter,
Cornelius Sammons,
Christopher Snyder,
Jacob A. Snyder,
Abraham Sammons,
John M. Williams,

Probably others might be disclosed by a complete and exhaustive
examination of the Assessment roll, and a comparison of the result with
the property holders of record.

Cornelius Lefevre was from New Paltz and had a large family, most
of whom settled in the neighborhood. His four daughters married John
Ostrander, Caleb M. Roosa, James E. Schoonmaker, and one of the
Snyders. Other settlers in the upper part of the town were Peter Van
Wagener, Johannis and Jacob Van Wagenen.

Charles Dewitt settled early on the Green Kill and built the Dewitt
Mills. He was a member of the Provincial Congress when it met at
Kingston. The old family residence is marked with the date 1736.

The schools of Rosendale were under the control of the original towns
during the entire period of the original district system, Rosendale being
created a separate municipality the same year that the law was enacted
placing the schools in charge of town superintendents. Of the earlier
teachers, the names of Abram Hasbrouck, Tammerlane Hine, Dr. Andrew
Snyder, and John James Snyder are mentioned, and there were probably
many others whose names do not appear. The superintendents during
the dozen years during which the law was enforced were as follows :

1844 — ^Jacob A. Snyder.

1845-1846 — James H. Bogardus.

1847 — ^Jacob A. Snyder.

1848 — James H. Bogardus.

1849 — E. W. Buddington.

1850-1853 — Simon Schoonmaker.

1854 — Isaiah Snyder.

1856 — Simeon Schoonmaker.

The beginning of the religious worship in what is now Rosendale be-
gan at Bloomingdale along in 1796 or 1797. Previous to that much diffi-
culty had been experienced by the devout inhabitants in attending divine

TOWN OF ROSENDALE.

357

worship, on account of the great distance, and the movement to establish a
church began by the appointment of a committee to consult with the con-
sistory of the Kingston Church, of which Andries Snyder, Simon Lefevre
and John C. Dewitt were the members. When their report was made, a
committee, consisting of Petrus Smedes, Simon Lefevre, and Samuel
Schoonmaker, was appointed to petition the Classis for permission to
organize, which was soon accomplished, the official organizers being Rev.
Stephen Goetchius and Moses Freligh.

In 1800 the Church joined with the Kleine Esopus Church in calling
the Rev. Thomas G. Smith to the joint pastorate, a position he held for
some years. It was joined with the Esopus Church until 1835, and was
incorporated December 6, 1797. On the same day Abraham Van
Wagenen deeded to the trustees a piece of land nearly an acre in extent,
for church purposes, and on July 7, 1798, the trustees of the town of
Hurley made a grant of thirteen acres. The first church edifice was
erected in 1797 and stood until 1846, when it was destroyed by fire. It was
at once decided to rebuild, and George W. Lefevre and Abram Van
Wagenen had charge of the work. The new building was erected some
distance north of the old one, and a handsome parsonage is near by.

The Friends, or Quakers, established meetings about the year 1800, in
what is now the town of Rosendale, and meetings have been held, with
occasional interruptions, since that time. The organization here is a
branch of the Marlborough Monthly Meeting.

CEMENT.

The production of Hydraulic Cement, now generally known as natural,
or native rock cement, has long been one of the most important industries
of Rosendale. For nearly three-quarters of a century the mining and
manufacture of this cement was so extensively carried on in this town
that the article itself became generally known as ‘"Rosendale Cement,”
to distinguish it from the Portland, or artificial product, with little regard
to the place of manufacture. And to-day this term is largely used by
engineers and builders in making this distinction. The quality of the
Rosendale rock was found superior to that of any other locality, and the
product has always been regarded of the highest grade. For a long series
of years previous to the present active demand for Portland cement, all
important masonry contracts specified that “Rosendale Cement” must be
used. It thus became a trade-mark of great value and the name was

358

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

often fraudulently applied to inferior grades made elsewhere. This re-
sulted in some damage to the reputation of the genuine article.

This immense deposit of cement rock in the town of Rosendale was
discovered in the summer of 1825 by the engineers who were construct-
ing the Delaware & Hudson Canal. The first specimens were burned in
a blacksmith’s forge at High Falls, and then reduced to powder by
pounding. A test revealed its excellent quality, and it was decided that
no more cement need be brought for the canal from Chittenango, Madison
County, N. Y., where it was then made. Mr. Canvass White first dis-
covered this rock and its properties, in this country, while working on
the Erie Canal, in 1818. For this valuable find he was voted $20,000 by
the State in that year.

The quarrying, burning and grinding of cement was begun in this
region in the spring of 1826; one John Littlejohn having the contract to
furnish all that was needed in the construction of the canal. On its com-
pletion the cement business ceased for a short time. But it was revived
soon afterward by Judge Lucas Elmendorf of Kingston. He began
operations at the present village of Lawrenceville, which was named after
Watson E. Lawrence, who soon succeeded Elmendorf in the business.
This burned stone was first ground in the old Snyder Mill. The Hoffman
works soon followed, and also the extensive factory at Whiteport, by
Hugh White, for whom that place was named. Much of the cement used
in the Croton Aqueduct was made at these mills.

Mr. White was succeeded by the Newark and Rosendale Lime and
Cement Co., in 1847, which greatly increased the plant, having three mills
at Whiteport and Hickory Bush. They increased the daily output from
450 to 1,000 barrels per day, having spent over $120,000 upon the im-
provements. This company continued for over fifty years. Among other
companies in the town were the Rosendale Works of F. O. Norton, the
Bruceville Works of James H. Vandermark, the New York Company at
Rock Lock, and the New York and Rosendale Works erected in 1873.
When the industry was at its height there were a dozen or more different
plants in operation in the town, and over 5,000 men were engaged in the
work.

The Rosendale plant alone, in 1898, ground about 4,000 barrels of
cement a day. The price had then fallen from $1.80 per barrel in 1883 to
'.$0.75 in 1898. Beginning with a total annual output in Ulster County, in

TOWN OF ROSENDALE.

359

1856, of 510,000 barrels, it increased to 2,833,107 barrels in 1892. At
the present time the industry has greatly declined because of the extensive
manufacture of American Portland cement, which has lowered the price
of that grade and brought it in direct competition with the rock cement.

A few years ago most of these Rosendale companies were bought by a
New York syndicate and merged into one known as the Consolidated
Cement Company. This large plant is now being operated, and 6,000
barrels of cement are now turned out daily with some 300 men employed.
There are only two other plants now in operation, one being that of the
A. J. Snyder Company, and the other the Miller Company, producing
about 1,000 barrels a day each, and employing about 150 men.

Most of these Rosendale quarries are deep, and tunnels are run to reach
the deeper strata, which are usually considered the best quality. Many of
these are far below the bed of the Hudson, and the mines are well worth
visiting. They have proved of inestimable value to the town, and yielded
many fortunes to the operators, while thousands of laboring men have
been benefited.

It is a curious fact that the raw cement rock crushed and ground will
not produce any hydraulic property in the cement whatever. It must first
be roasted or calcined, which is done in huge kilns of brick. This reduces
the weight about one half. But the precise change which takes place in
the stone by this roasting process, though presumably chemical, has
never been satisfactorily explained.

Rosendale furnished about ninety-five soldiers to the War of the Rebel-
lion, distributed in the various regiments, though there were probably
more in the old Twentieth than in any other.

The State census of 1905 places the population of the town at 4,670.
Of this number, 4,436 were native born.

There is a fine railway bridge over the Rondout Creek in Rosendale
village, which carries the track of the Wallkill Valley Railway. It is 900
feet long and about 160 feet above the creek. This bridge was rebuilt
recently in a much more substantial manner required for the heavier
trains and rolling stock of the road now in use on that line.

360

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

CHAPTER XXIX.

TOWN OF SAUGERTIES.

By Charles E. Foote.

HE town of Saugerties is the northeastern town of Ulster County.

It was incorporated April 5, 1811, from the territory which had

previously been included in the town of Kingston. Evidently an
error had been made in the boundary line, as a correcting act was passed
by the General Assembly the next year, and an addition was made to the
area of the town in 1832, by taking more of Kingston.

Saugerties is bounded on the north by Green County; on the east by
the Hudson river ; on the south by the towns of Ulster and Kingston, and
on the Vvrest by the town of Woodstock and the county of Greene. Its
area is 37,603 acres.

The surface of the eastern portion, along the Hudson river, is undula-
ting, with occasional rocky bluffs and breaks, of no considerable elevation,
but abrupt in their character ; to the west and northwest there is a natural
gradient, somewhat hilly and broken across the foot-hills and to the
Catskill mountains proper. The scenery is most picturesque, the high
mountains to the northwest being in plain sight on clear days from the
eastern and southern border limits.

The Esopus Creek, which enters the town from the south at a point
about two miles from the Hudson, flows due north about half the length
of the town, then turns east, and after a series of curves, breaks through,
fails over the bluffs, and enters the Hudson, creating a most excellent
though narrow harbor at its mouth. It has numerous tributaries, of which
the Plattekill, rising in the mountains in the extreme northwest, flows
southward by a few degrees easterly and reaches the Esopus near the
south line of the town. In the northeastern part of the town, a mile or
two from the Hudson, rises the Saw Kill, which flows southeasterly, and
reaches that river just above the mouth of the Esopus. The Beaver
Kill, evidently contrary minded, rises between the Esopus and the Platte-
kill in the southerly part of the town, and flows northward between the
Plattekill on the west, and the Sawkill on the east, both flowing in oppo-

John Maxwell,

TOWN OF SAUGERTIES. 361

site directions, and empties in the Catskill Creek at the northern limits of
the town.

There seems no method of establishing, at this time, the date of occu-
pancy or the identity of the very earliest settlers. The land was a part
of the Kingston patent and it is naturally supposed that as soon as it could
consistently be accomplished, those families who subsequently became
prominent in Saugerties, selected their locations in that territory and
assumed possession at as early a date as possible, for the purpose of
growing the crops, utilizing the water power, and constructing the
buildings.

A grant of land was made in May, 1687, of a tract of about 442 acres
at the mouth of the Esopus Creek, to George Meals and Richard Hays.
A description of this property was filed early in 1686, together with several
other tracts, surveyed by Ro. Fullertown “for George Meals and others,”
One of the other tracts was 252 acres, lying on the side of a run called the
Beaver Kill, about three miles west of the mouth of the Esopus, also being
a part of the tract called Sagiers ; also 300 acres along the Hudson from
the mouth of the Esopus, being part of the Sagiers tract ; also
a tract of 201 acres, about a mile northwest of the mouth of the Esopus
and, crossing the Sawkill, which was also a part of the Sagiers tract.
Incidentally, Surveyor Fullertown laid out a tract of 797 acres for himself
while surveying in this region, in the neighborhood of Wanton Island.

The reiteration of the name “Sagiers,” as applied to this region, at that
very early date, indicates the source of the evolution which has produced
“Saugerties.” But the logic, or the philosophy, of the evolution does not
satisfactorily appear, nor does the origin or parentage of the word itself.
Some suggestions have been made from time to- time, as to- a different
source, but they are all so entirely impregnated with an acrostic taint, that
they are valuable only as examples of ingenuity.

Whether or not Meals and Hays ever resided on the properties, or
caused them to be settled, is not known. Several conveyances were made,
evidently within the company or family, and in' 1712 the tract at the
mouth of the Esopus Creek was transferred to John Persen. He died in
1748, and left the property subject to the life interest of his widow, to
his son Jacobus, and his daughter Vannitte, wife of Myndert Minderse.
In the will is mentioned the original grist-mill of the section, though no
statement is made of the time of its erection, or even whether it was on

362

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

the ground when he "purchased it in 1712. This does not appear likely,
however, as the deed of transfer would probably have made some mention
of it.

In the winter of 1710-1711, a large colony of immigrants, called Pala-
tines, came up the Hudson and established camps on either side of the
river, that on the west side being known as West Camp, that opposite
as East Camp. Most of these were Huguenots, though some were Dutch,
and all are said to have derived the cognomen of “Palatines” from the
fact that all came from the Palatinate in the Netherlands. They seem
to have spread out within the next few years, until the entire northern
portion of the town was occupied by them. One of the earliest permanent
settlements seems to have been at Katsbaan, as a church was organized
there about 1730. There is an old gazetteer which states that the Lutheran
church at West Camp, was organized in 1708, but inasmuch as there
are no obtainable records, and the colony of Palatines did not reach West
Camp until about Christmas, 1710, the statement must be an error, typo-
graphically or otherwise.

A list of the persons and families of the immigrants from the Pala-
tinate who came about Christmas, 1710, and encamped at West Camp,
was made the following June (June 24, 1711). They had separated them-
selves into three groups, known as Elizabeth Town, George Town, and
New Town. The reports were as follows :

John Christopher Gerlach, listmaster of Elizabeth Town, reported the inhabitants
to be forty-two families, — one hundred and forty-six persons;

Jacob Mauck, listmaster of George Town, reported forty families, — one hundred
and twenty-eight persons;

Philip Peter Granberger, listmaster for New Town, reported one hundred and
three families, — three hundred and sixty-five persons ;

Making a total of 185 families — 639 persons, who were among the very earliest
real settlers of Saugerties and the Saw^yer’s Creek region.

There seems to have been some feeling over the settlement of the
Palatines. The Board of Trade at Kingston, had proposed to give them,
should they come, a tract of land on the west side of the Hudson, “twenty
miles in breadth, and forty miles in length,” and Governor Hunter re-
ported, November 14, 1710, six weeks before their arrival, that he had
“settled” them in two villages on the Sawyer’s Creek. This seems to mean
that he had selected sites for two villages for their settlement.

On the other hand there seems to have been no action taken to supply
any such tract of land which would have amounted to something like a

Martin Cantine.

The Martin Cantine Company’s Coated Paper Manufacturing
Plant, Saugerties, N. Y.

TOWN OF SAUGERTIES.

363

lialf million acres. An order of the court, dated October 5, 1711, seems to
indicate that there was some friction over settlements on lands. It reads
as follows:

“At a meeting of Justices in Kingstown, this 5th October 1711, present Coll.
Jacob Rutsen, Capt. Dirk Schepmoes, Mr. Evert Wynkoop, Mr. Cornelis Coal,
Coll. Rutsen having received a letter from Mr, Secretary by his Excellency’s order,
setting forth that severall Pallatines leave their settlements and seek to settle
themselves on particular men theire land, and ordered Ye Justices to send them
to their own towns, ordered that each constable be served with a coppy of this
order, that they cause all the pallatines to go to theire own settlements, and fore-
warne all theire Districts that they do not harbour any Pallatines att theire perrill.”

The oldest religious body in the town of Saugerties is the Lutheran
church of West Camp. A gazetteer published by Hamilton Child in 1871,
says that it was organized in 1708, by the Palatines, but as there seems to
have been no Palatines there until 1712, and as there does not seem to
have been any Lutherans among the Dutch, this is probably an error. The
most reliable advices place the organization of the church at 1711, with
Rev. Joshua Kocherthal as its organizer and first minister.

There seems also to have been members of the Dutch Reformed Church
among the Palatines; both joined together and built a church where each
held services. As nearly as can be determined, the erection of this church
building was accomplished the first season of occupancy by the Palatines,
in 1711.

The original bell was a present to the church from Queen Anne, but
during the early years of the nineteenth century it was exchanged for a
larger one. It is said to be one of the first, if not the first Lutheran
churches established in America, and services have been held there almost
continuously.

The following is a copy of a document which has much historic sig-
nificance. It is preserved among the papers of the Russell family :

“To all Protestant Christians of every persuasion: —

“Whereas, in the year of 1710, many German Protestants of the Lutheran per-
suasion were invited from Europe to North America by the late Queen Ann of
England, and at their arrival in the country a number of them settled at the West
Camp, now in the county of Ulster, in the state of New York; not long after their
settlement they formed themselves into a Congregation and built a Church or
House of Worship, as well as their then circumstances would permit, but many
of said Congregation having since, from year to year, removed to a great distance,
whereby the present congregation is become very weak and their church in a rotten
condition, and finding themselves unable to build a new one, therefore we the
subscribers. Elders, have with the consent of the Congregation resolved on a col-
lection, hoping that every well wishing Protestant will kindly assist us to perform
so necessary a Task for the Honor of God according to their free will and inclina-

364

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

tion. We have, therefore, unanimously chosen our trusty friend, Ludwig Roessell,
the bearer hereof, and his companion Johannes Eligh, to go forth and receive such
free gifts as every Christian who may chance to be requested by them will be
pleased to bestow. In gratitude whereof we shall, if an opportunity is offered to
us, be ever ready to return the kindness with gladness. Given under our hands
this nth day of October 1791.”

“Petrus. Egner.

“Peter Mower.'^

“West Camp, county of Ulster.” “Johannis Mower.”

“Ulster County, State of New York, ss: —

“I do certify that the Purport of the above Petition is founded on truth, and
that I am well acquainted with the persons therein named, and that they are men
of good character, as witness my hand in Kingston this 13th day of October, 1791.

“D. Wynkoop.

“First Judge of the Court of Common Pleas for Ulster County.

“John Snyder.

“Assistant Judge of Said Court.

“The above Ludwig Roessell and Johannis Eligh are personally known to me,
and bear the character of honest men.

“Given at Greenwich this 22nd October 1791. “Geo. Clinton.”

It is impossible to state at this time whether the improvements in 1791
were the remodeling and the repairing and enlarging the old one, or
whether a new edifice was built. A new and commodious church was
erected in 1871. It still maintains the Augsbury Confession, and was
incorporated in 1854.

Saugerties is filled with historic matter the use of which the limits of
this volume will not permit, except in their most salient features. The
Snyders, the Russells, the Dedericks, the Posts, the DeWitts, the New-
kirks, the Van Steenburghs, the Wolvins, the Wynkoops, the Ploeffs,
the Ten Broecks, the Rightmeyers, the Wells, the Kiersteds, and a
large number of other families are in possession of old documents and
records which are of a,bsorbing interest, as showing the conditions which
prevailed from 100 to 200 years ago.

Andrew Brink was the captain of the “Clermont,” Robert Fulton’s first
steamboat.

The following letter has been preserved, addressed to him :

“New York, Oct. 9, 1807.

“Captain Brink — Sir: — Enclosed is the number of voyages which it is intended
the boat should run this season ; you may have them published in the Albany papers.
As she is strongly manned, and every one except Jackson under your command, you
must insist on each one doing his duty, or turn him^ on shore and put another in
his place; everything must be kept in order, everything in its place, and all parts
of the boat scowered and clean. It is not sufficient to tell men to do a thing, but
stand over them and make them do it. One pair of quick and good eyes is worth
six pair of hands in a commander. If the boat is dirty or out of order, the fault
shall be yours, — let no man be idle when there is the least thing to do, and make
them move quick.

\\ w

TOWN OF SAUGERTIES.

365

“Run no risques of any kind ; when you meet or overtake vessels beating or cross-
ing your way, always run under their stern, if there be the least doubt that you
cannot clear their head by fifty yards or more ; give in the amounts of receipts and
expenses every week to the Chancellor.

“Your most obedient

Robert Fulton.”

Mr. Brink was also the first town clerk of Saugerties.

In 1788 there were five road districts in that part of the town of Kings-
ton which afterward became the town of Saugerties.

Saugerties was a part of the town of Kingston during the war of the
Revolution, and, of course, had no independent military history. In
the war of 1812 the town was represented by some 85 of her citizens.

About 1808 or 1810, one or more military companies was organized in
the town. The trainings were mostly in one company and was known as
the Rangers. Its officers were: Captain, J. Clark; Lieutenant, L. Kier-
stead; Ensign, A. Post; Orderly Sergeant, Peter P. Post. In 1813 this
company joined with one from Kingston and another from Marbletown
under the command of Captain Elmendorf and Lieutenant Peter P. Post.
There was a draft of one-sixth of the militia in 1814, but the term of
service was short.

Nearly a thousand men fought in the war of the Rebellion from the
town of Saugerties, including the substitutes furnished when the drafts
were made. The men from Saugerties were distributed through the
various regiments organized wholly, or in part, in Ulster County, and
many members of various other organizations.

366

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

CHAPTER XXX.

TOWN OF SHANDAKEN.

By Henry Griffeth.

SHANDAKEN is the northwest corner town of the County of Ulster
and was formed from a part of the town of Woodstock, April 9th,
1804.

It is an Indian name signifying rapid waters, and was applied to the
town, or to the territory out of which it was formed, on account of the
numerous streams which flow down its steep gorges and mountain ravines-
The name is appropriate and should not be changed for any other.

The settlements known as Woodstock, and Great and Little Shandaken,
were, by act of the Legislature, passed April nth, 1787, formed into a
township under the name of Woodstock. The town as first formed em-
braced a large territory and took in the present towns of Woodstock,
Shandaken, Denning, the most of Hardenburgh and a part of Olive.

At the Woodstock town meeting held the first Tuesday in April, 1796, it
was unanimously voted that the town be divided, but no division was made
till 1804, when the Act creating Shandaken was passed. The following
year, on the first Tuesday in April, the first town meeting was held,
and Benjamin Milk was chosen Supervisor, William B. Rogers, Town
Clerk. Rogers had held the same office in the town of Woodstock
since 1801. He was the father of the late Joseph H. Rogers v/ho
died in Shandaken some years ago at an advanced age. Supervisor Milk,
at the time he was chosen, resided at the place now called Slide Moun-
tain, near the head of Big Indian Valley, on the farm lately occupied by
James W. Dutcher. He afterwards moved to Dry Brook, in what is
now the town of Hardenburgh, and settled on the farm now, or lately,
owned by William Todd. Milk continued to represent the town as its
Supervisor until 1810, when Aaron Adams was chosen and re-elected
till 1816; when he was succeeded by Henry W. Rogers.

Supervisor Adams resided at Pine Hill. He settled there and made the
first clearing, before the year 1800. About 1810, he built a hotel on the

Henry Griffeth.

TOWN OF SHANDAKEN.

367

site now occupied by Billor’s summer hotel, formerly known as ^‘Glen
Hall,'' and continued to reside there, keeping tavern, until about 1816,
when he moved away and settled near Rochester, N. Y. Adams served
one term in the Legislature while he lived at Pine Hill; he was a good
fiddler and a man of energy. He was also the first postmaster of Pine
Hill, but at that time there were only three post-offices in the town. Pine
Hill, Aaron Adams postmaster, one at the O’Neil place now owned by
Giles Whitney, between Shandaken and Phoenicia-, Henry W. Rogers
postmaster, and The Corners, Lazarus Sprague postmaster.

At the time Adams lived at Pine Hill there was little there except his
tavern and a saw-mill set down in a small clearing. His tavern was a.
frame building, lathed and plastered, and was the first building of the
kind built in the town. People came for miles around to see it; it was
such a curiosity. All other houses in the town at that time were con-
structed of logs. The tavern at Pine Plill, after Adams left, was kept by
John Higgins, father of the late Marical Higgins ; then by Samuel Smith ;
then by Ezekial Griffin, father of the late Matthew Griffin; then by one
Strattabus, a Frenchman, who rebuilt it. In after years it passed into the
hands of the late Thomas and Floyd Smith, and finally to Mrs. Mahala
Floyd, who in 1874 erected ‘‘Glen Hall," and the old Pine Tavern, to
well and widely known for many years, passed away.

Henry W. Rogers was Supervisor from 1816 until 1825, having been
elected nine times in succession, which gave him more years in office than
any other Supervisor of the town. He also kept a tavern in connection
with his post-office. But in those days a Shandaken tavern was a primi-
tive affair, the same room frequently answering for a bar-room, dining-
room and kitchen. He was succeeded in office by Herman Landon, who
was Supervisor until 1827. He was succeeded in turn by James O’Neil^
father of the late Thomas H. O’Neil. Herman Landon was a son of John
Landon who settled on Pine Hill, coming from Columbia County about
1805. He made the first clearing, where the “Grampian" now stands.

Pine Hill, and almost the entire town, at that time was a dense wilder-
ness, with here and there a clearing. Bears, wolves, deer and other wild
animals held almost universal sway.

Milo Barber, Sr., kept a small store near Phoenicia on the road to
Chichester as early as 1826, and about the same time Lazarus Sprague

368

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

started one at The Corner. Very little, however, was clone in the mer-
cantile line until the building of tanneries later on.

The following is a sample of pioneer life in Shandaken. Old Peter
Crispell, came to the town as a pioneer settler from Marbletown before
1800. He settled at Shandaken Center, as the village of Shandaken was
formerly called, on the property now owned by Bernard Garrety, where he
built a stone house, which is still standing. The country was then a
wilderness, and he depended on Marbletown for his supply of pro-
visions. A horse owned by him, named “Figure” and a boy living in the
family, made frequent visits to Marbletown and brought back such sup-
plies as were most needed. On one occasion, in the spring of the year,
after they had planted potatoes, they found that their stock of provisions
was nearly exhausted. The boy was placed on Figure’s back and started
for Marbletown, which he reached in safety, but before he was ready to
return, a heavy fall of rain so flooded the streams that they could not be
forded, hence the boy and Figure were detained in Marbletown until it
was considered safe for them to return. In the meantime, the Crispell
family were compelled to dig up the potatoes they had planted and use
them for food. This was in the “good old times,” but, really, were there
ever any “good old times?” We think not. “Good old times” may do for
sentiment, but has no foundation in fact.

Modern Shandaken, according to the census taken in 1905, has a popu-
lation of 3,045, of which 2,988 are citizens and 57 aliens. It has a voting
population of 925, and is divided into three election districts. Its town
meetings for the election of town officers are held biennially in connection
with the general elections. That portion of the town which has been brought
under cultivation is mostly a long, winding, narrow valley, extending from
the town of Olive to the Delaware County line on the top of Pine Hill,
a distance of nineteen miles, with here and there a smaller valley branching
from the main valley, studded on either side by grand and lofty mountains.
The soil, especially in the valleys, is mostly a sandy loam, which, if well
fertilized, brings a quick and generous crop. Both soil and climate are
well adapted to fruit. All kinds do well, except peaches and grapes, al-
though fine peaches have been grown. Apples do well.

The Esopus is the largest stream of water. It rises on the western
slope of Slide Mountain, flows down Big Indian Valley, is joined by
Birch Creek, near the village of Big Indian, and from thence moves down

TOWN OF SHANDAKEN.

369

Shandaken valley to the town of Olive. It is subject to great rise and fall,
sometimes swelling to the dimensions of a flood, carrying away bridges
and doing material damage. In times of extreme drouth it recedes to the
proportions of a modest brook.

Its next tributary, after leaving Big Indian, is the Bushnellville Creek,
which meets it at Shandaken, three miles further down the stream. This
creek takes its rise in a genuine canyon called Deep Notch, about two
miles from West Kill, Greene County. Traveling about one mile farther
down the Esopus we come to the Peck Bushkill, which empties into the
Esopus from the north, and the Fox Hollow stream, which reaches it
from the south.

Its next tributary, called the Bradstreet Hollow stream, meets the
Esopus from the north near Elm Shade two miles below Shandaken.
About two miles further down the Woodland valley stream empties into
the Esopus from the southwest. One mile below at Phoenicia the Barber
Bushkill mingles its waters with the Esopus. The next and last tribu-
tary is the Little Shandaken Creek, which flows down the valley from
West Woodstock, better known as Little Shandaken. All these streams
are subject to sudden rise and fall. Melting snows and prolonged rains
swell them far beyond their normal size, and protracted drouths reduce
them to mere brooks; they are all well stocked with Brook, California
and German Brown Trout.

There is a legend connected with Big Indian which is well worth
relating. Tradition has it that in the time of the Revolution, there lived
in Big Indian valley an Indian of enormous stature and strength who was
an implacable enemy of the whites. He would suddenly emerge from his
retreat and, after depredations, as suddenly retreat to his hiding place.
The whites resolved that he must die, and when he was discovered
prowling about near where Birch Creek empties into the Esopus, he was
killed. They held him up against the body of a large pine tree, and, in a
rude way, cut his profile upon it, which lasted until the tree was cut down,
long after the Revolution, and worked up into shingles by a local Meth-
odist preacher. Ever since, the valley has been called Big Indian. The
railroad station and village post-office bear the same name. The Ulster
and Delaware Railroad traverses the whole length of the town.

Before the woodman’s axe began its destructive work there were thou-
sands of acres of bark-lands in Shandaken, which attracted the attention

370

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

of men who wished to embark in the tanning business. Large tracts of
hemlock forest were bought up and tanneries were built. The first tan-
nery built in the town was erected on Birch Creek, at Pine Hill, in 1831,
by Augustus A. Guigou, a Frenchman, who came to this country in 1827,
from Marseilles, France. He served nine years as a private and officer in
the army of the first Napoleon, and had been a tanner and manufacturer
of paper in his native country. He was succeeded in business by his son,
the late Theodore Guigou, in 1846, and died about the year 1851. His was
the Empire tannery, which was destroyed by fire in 1858, and never rebuilt.

Following Birch Creek two miles from Pine Hill, we come to Smith-
ville. Here Smith and Ferman built a tannery in 1844.

Passing down Birch Creek, about half a mile further, we come to the
Esopus. Here, not far from the junction of the two streams, Robert
Humphrey built a tannery in 1835, which he operated till about 1845,
when it passed to George W. Tuttle, and afterward to S. R. and T. C.
Wey, who operated it till the supply of bark gave out.

The next tannery, down the Esopus, was built at Shandaken by Bushnell
and Dewey, and was one of the first to be erected. They were succeeded
by Isham & Co., who afterward took in Eliakim Sherrill as a partner.
Sherrill came to the tannery from Greene County, where he had failed in
business as a tanner and hired out as a teamster. He was a man of great
shrewdness and perseverance, and after awhile Isham & Co. took him as
a partner and finally sold out to him and Simeon Gallop; later on he
bought out Gallop and became the sole owner. In 1856 he sold to Hiram
Whitney and moved to Geneva, N. Y. When the Civil War broke out he
raised a regiment, which he commanded, and was killed in the battle of
Gettysburg. The next tannery, down the Esopus, was built near Phoen-
icia, six miles below Shandaken, by Moore and Ellis about 1836, and was
known as the Phoenix tannery. Other parties afterward operated it.
The late James A. Simpson operated it for forty years and was the last
proprietor. Simpson was a man of much originality. The late Col.
H. D. H. Snyder built a tannery in Woodland valley, two miles from
Phoenicia, in 1851, and operated it till the bark was exhausted. The next
was at The Corner, owned and operated for many years by the late H. A.
Ladew. A tannery was built at Bushnellville at an early period by Capt.
Aaron Bushnell, and conducted by him for many years. Not one of these
old tanneries is now standing. They were for many years the scene of

TOWN OF SHANDAKEN.

371

much life and activity, but belong to the past. Their very existence is fast
fading from memory. To keep these tanneries going, took a vast quantity
of bark. No use was made of the trees after the bark was stripped, except
to a limited extent. Millions of these choice trees were left to rot on the
ground where they fell, or to be consumed by forest fires.

Slide Mountain, so called on account of a landslide which carried
away a portion of it on the south side many years ago, is within the town
and is the highest peak of the Catskills. It aifords a view from its summit
that must be seen to be appreciated. Its altitude is 4,220 feet, and it is
reached by way of Big Indian valley. The Wittenburgh comes next, and
is one of the grandest mountains of the Catskill range; it is reached by
way of Woodland valley. Other mountains are Mt. Sheridan, Balsam
Mountain, and Mt. Garfield. Monka Hill, modest and unassuming, is
worthy of mention on its own merits. It is easy of ascent and is reached
by a path leading from the Grand Hotel to its summit. The view is far-
reaching and magnificent. There is a stretch of shelving rocks on the
west, standing upon which one looks down hundreds of feet into the
valley below upon the tops of giant trees that add sublimity to the view.

There are fifteen neat and substantial church edifices in the town, of
which the Methodist Episcopal denomination has five. The Roman Cath-
olics have three, one at Phoenicia, one at Elm Shade, and another at Pine
Hill. The Episcopalians have three; the Dutch Reformed have one at
The Corner, built in 1836, which gives it rank as the oldest church in the
town. The Wesleyan Methodists have one at Chichester. The Baptists
have one at Phoenicia, and the Free Methodists have one at Elm Shade.

The industries of the town are farming, lumbering, quarrying blue-
stone for flagging and building purposes, and entertaining city people
through the summer, if that can be called an industry. There is one
chair factory in the town, located at Shandaken. At Chichester, two miles
from Phoenicia, there is a furniture manufactory, owned and operated by
Wm. O. Schwarzwalder. Both of these factories are large. The Ulster
and Delaware Bluestone Co., incorporated in 1894, is located at Allaben
and has branch mills at West Hurley. This company deals in all kinds
of bluestone and is under the management of Edmund Riseley. The
Pine Hill Crystal Spring Water Company, incorporated in 1901, is located
at Pine Hill, employs about twenty hands, and ships to New York from
six to nine carloads of this water per week. E. C. Clifford is the general

372

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

manager. Besides there are excelsior and heading mills in the town
which do considerable business.

The residence of the late Davis Winne, is located along the State road
about six miles below Phoenicia. Here it was that a fort was erected
in May, 1779, by order of Governor George Clinton, as a protection
against the incursion of the Tories and Indians. It was built of logs,
and Major Adrian Wynkoop had charge of its construction. It was large
enough for two hundred troops and stood a short distance beyond the
barn of Mr. Winne towards the residence of H. B. Hudler. John Winne,
grandfather of Davis Winne, came from Holland, and lived in the old
fort while he was building his house.

There is an incident bearing upon this old fort which I will relate. Old
Peter Crispell, to whom reference has been made, has a brother Abram
who was a sergeant in the War of the Revolution, and stationed at the
Shandaken fort. On an occasion before the close of the war Sergeant
Crispell, with a party of men, started from the fort on an expedition to
hunt Indians. They went westward as far as the Cockburn place near
Margaretville, when they fell in with a party of Tories and Indians led
by one Shaver. Each party supposing the other to be the stronger, fell
back. But Crispell and Shaver knew each other, and both at the same
time sprang behind trees to cover themselves. There they stood for
some time, neither being willing to retreat or expose himself lest the
other might get a shot at him. After waiting awhile. Shaver saw a small
portion of Crispell’s body exposed from behind the tree and fired at it and
ran. Crispell was not hit and, springing from behind the tree that had
covered him, fired at Shaver as he ran. The ball took effect and Shaver
fell severely wounded, and was taken prisoner by the Crispell party. It
being near night they took him to the house of one Van Wagenor on the
Dimmick place at Arkville. He was placed on some deer skins for a bed,
and the next day they carried him a prisoner to the fort in Shandaken.
The wound was probed, the ball extracted, and Shaver recovered. Cris-
pell kept Shaver’s gun and gave it to Benjamin Crispell, and it remained
in the Crispell family for many years. After the war Crispell and Shaver
became good friends.

TOWN OF SHAWANGUNK.

373

CHAPTER XXXI.

TOWN OF SHAWANGUNK.

By Charles E. Foote.

HE town of Shawangunk, as well as the mountains and creek bear-

ing that name, were so called from the Indian appellation of the

country lying between the Shawangunk Kill and mountains. It
lies along the southern borders of the county and is bounded on the north
by Gardiner and Plattekill, on the east by Plattekill and Orange County,
on the south and southwest by Orange and Sullivan Counties, and on the
northwest by the town of Wawarsing. It is a broken and hilly upland,
with the high ridge of the Shawangunk mountains along the northwest
border, and has an area of 33,851 acres.

The Wallkill crosses the eastern portion of the town from south to
north, and has Dwaar’s Kill as a tributary from the southwest. Sha-
wangunk Creek or Kill, rising in Sullivan County, flows northeasterly
along an irregular boundary of the town, crosses the town at its narrowest
point, about midway between its eastern and western boundaries, and
empties into the Wallkill in the town of Gardiner, some miles northeast.
It is fed by Verkeerder Kill, Platte Kill, and Dwaar’s Kill, all from the
northwest; this Dwaar’s Kill not being the same stream as that which
empties into the Wallkill a few miles east.

The date of the earliest settlement has been lost in obscurity, but it
must have been between 1670 and 1680. Jacob Bruyn and his wife, Ger-
truyd, were among the earliest settlers, and there is a record of the bap-
tism of a son, Jan, in the Kingston church records of October 6, 1678. As
they were not known to have lived in Kingston, it may be inferred that
they had settled in Shawangunk. On March 2, 1682, Jacob Bruyn and
Michael Modt petitioned the Court at Kingston for permission to pur-
chase a tract of land “behind the Paltz,” from the Indians. Whether this
is the same tract afterward secured by his widow, for herself and children,
and afterward known as the “Gertruyd Bruyn patent,” cannot now be
stated with certainty, though it seems the most probable deduction. The

374

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

son Jan does not appear further in the records. There were two other
children, Jacobus and Esther. Gertruyd Bruyn, after the death of her
husband, Jacob, married Severyn Tenhout in 1694. He was a baker who
formerly lived at Kingston, and had acquired the Lloyd tract. They had
no children, and at his death Tenhout left his property to his wife’s
children. The Lloyd farm, left by Tenhout, was settled on by Jacobus
Bruyn, who married Katrina Schoonmaker, and raised a large family of
children, said to be fifteen in number.

Esther married Zachariah Hoffman, October 19, 1707, and lived on
the east side of Shawangunk Kill. They had five children.

Among the earliest settlers, besides Jacob Bruyn (oldest documents
spell it Bruin), were Cornelius Schoonmaker, Abraham Schutt, Zacharias
Hoffman, Benjamin Smedes, Jacob Decker, John TerwilKger, Johannes
C. Decker, Robert Kain, Robert Graham, David Davis, Daniel Winfield,
Hendrick VanWegen, and James Pennock. On November 14, 1709,
Jacob Bruyn and Benjamin Smedes jointly petitioned for and presented a
survey of a tract of 400 acres in Shawangunk, “near a small hill.” On
the 28th of the same month Zacharias Hoffman presented a description
of 330 acres of land laid out for him on the east side of the Shawangunk
River, and on the same date John McClean did the same regarding a tract
of 300 acres on the northwest side of the Paltz Kill, in Shawangunk ; and
Matthias Mott presented a petition that Sovereign Tenhout be compelled
to divide up some of “the good land upon the said (Shawangunk) river,”
which he had previously secured. The records do not show that the
desired relief was given.

One of the first stone houses in the town was erected by Cornelius
Schoonmaker. The Bevier family settled first at “Muddy Kill.” George
Graham, a north-of-Ireland native, settled on land located near what is
now Shawangunk village, and the family has since been prominent in the
affairs of the county.

Thomas and Johannes Jansen were among the early settlers, and
erected stone houses about two miles apart, in the northwestern portion
of the town.

In 1728, the following persons comprised the list of Freeholders of
Shawangunk, according to the list as returned July 7 of that year, by
Sheriff VanDyke to the Court at Kingston:

TOWN OF SHAWANGUNK.

375

Capt. Jacobus Bruyn,
Benjamin Smedes,

Jacob Decker,

Josua Smedes,

Evert ter Willige,

Mattys Slimmer,

Hendrick Kraus,

Gallatian,

Johannes Decker,

James Spennick,

Henry Wileman, (attorney)
George Andrew,

Jerommus Minigus,
Christophel Moul,

John Williams,

Caleb Knap, Jr.,

Coll Cortland*

Capt. Zacharias Hoffman,
Abraham Schutt,

Evert ter Willige,
Cornelius Schoonmaker,
Hendrick Decker,
Hendrick Newkirk,
Edward Gatehouse,
Jerommus Weller,

John Howard,

Cornelius Cool,

John North,

John Macknell,

Thomas Mackolm,

Samuel Neely,

Caleb Knap, Sr.,
Alaxander Neely.

There seems something about this list which needs an explanation
which cannot be made after the lapse of years. From a comparison of
records there seems to be omissions of importance. The Hardenbergh
patent, issued in 1719, called for land on Verkeerder Kill, and another tract
four miles from Shawangunk Kill; the Peter Barberie patent is dated
March 24, 1709; the John Rutzen patent, June 16, 1712. Beside these
were patents given in 1709 to Beckman, Van Dam, Phillipse, Deyo, Ver-
noye, Teunis Jacobsen Clearwater, Jacob Clearwater, and a number of
others; the Stephen DuBois patent on Verkeeder’s Kill was dated 1722,
and the Sacket and Hazard patents in 1727. These names and others
appear constantly in the records of that period, and it is apparent that
many of them resided in the town with their families at the time the list
was made.

The civic organization of Shawangunk was established in 1709. The
boundaries, as stated in the Court order creating the precinct, read : ^'On
the west by the foot of the Shawangunk mountains; on the south and
west by the precinct of Wallkill; on the east by the line or bounds of
three thousand five hundred acres, granted to Rip Van Dam and others,
by the east bounds or line of two thousand acres of land granted to Bar-
berie, and by the east bounds or line of two thousand acres granted to
Huddleston ; and on the north by the north bounds or line of the said two
thousand acres granted to Huddleston, by the north bounds of the two
thousand acres granted to Peter Mathews and others ; on the south by a
line crossing the said Wallkill river to the mouth of the Shawangunk ; and
running thence south westerly all along the northwest side of Shaw-

376

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

angnnk river to the southwest corner of the land granted to Col. Jacob
Rutzen, and on the west by the westerly bounds or line of said land
granted to Rutzen to a salt pond called “the Great Salt Pond,” and from
thence upon a west line to the foot of Shawangunk mountains aforesaid.”

The first meeting for the election of a Supervisor and other local
officials was held at the house of Benjamin Smedes, Jr. At the beginning
the precinct was attached to New Paltz for administrative purposes. It
was given an independent jurisdiction in December 27, 1743. Some
changes were made in the boundaries in 1846, 1848 and 1853. At the
latter change, a part of Gardiner was taken off. The other changes gave
some land to Plattekill, and restored it to Shawangunk two years later.

The first record of a town meeting in the town for public purposes, is
that following:

“Att an Election held for Chusing of Officers for the Precinct of Shawangunk,
on the first Tuesday in April, Anno Domini 1746, at the house of Abraham Ter-
willeger, at Shawangunk, The following Persons were Chosen, Viz: Jacobus Bruyn,
Supervisor and Clerk; Thomas Jansen, Isaac Hasbrouck, Assessors; Hendrick Van
Wegen, Constable and Collector; William Deder, Overseer of the Shawangunk
Road; George Graham, Overseer of the Wallkill Road; Benjamin Smedes, David
Davis, Overseers of the Poor.”

“Agreed that the Election for the Ensuing year be held at the house of Robert
Kerr, at the Wallkill.”

“J. Bruyn, Clerk.”

The people of Shawangunk were well represented in the War of the
Revolution. Johannes Jansen was Lieutenant Colonel of the Fourth,
(Hardenbergh’s) regiment of Militia. Among the line officers of the
same regiment, were Captain Isaac Davis, Matthew Jansen, Cornelius
and Matthew Masten, David Ostrander, Peter Roosa, Lieutenants Jaco-
bus S. Bruyn, Peter Decker, William Ostrander and various others. The
lists of privates in that regiment seems to embrace the names of nearly
every family in the town, though there are some who belonged to other
organizations.

The roads of the town were given much attention at a very early day.
They were made and kept in repair by an assessment of as many days’
work as the property of each freeholder or male inhabitant over twenty-
one years of age should justify. In 1817 there were three divisions of
road, one “West of the Kills,” in which there were twenty-four road
districts; “between the Kills,” with fourteen districts, and “the New
Hurley road,” with twelve districts.

TOWN OF SHAWANGUNK.

377

There is an entry in the old records which must appeal strongly to the
modern politician, as an illustration of how “things in politics” were done
“in the good old days” when every one, as seen through the reversed
telescope of history, was supposed to have been sober, industrious, re-
ligious, and personally and politically pure ; when votes were “counted as
cast,” etc. The extract is as follows :

“April, 1773.” “A motion then being made by several persons to Remove the
place of election for the Chusing of officers for this precinct for the Ensuing Year
to the house of Henry Goetschius, The Clerk began to take the votes, and after
he had Entered Down Nineteen Votes for Removing the place of Election and two
votes against it, a great Disturbance and Confusion Arising, The l ables was taken
away from the Clerk, and Night Comeng on, and Many of the people being Intoxi-
cated with Liquor, they were not able to proceed any farther.”

“Entered from the proceedings of the Election p. me.

“J. Bruyn, Clerk.”

The town of Shawangunk is rich in the records of men who have
attained special distinction. Several members of the Bruyn family have
been in the legislature. Johannes Bruyn was a member of the Assembly
in 1781, 1782, 1783, 1796-97, and in 1800. Severyn T. Bruyn occupied
the office in 1789-90, 1792-93, and 1795, and Charles Bruyn in 1826.

Another family of special prominence was the Grahams. Dr. John G.
Graham was a member of the Assembly in 1791, and of the State Senate
from this district for the four year terms beginning in 1798, and in 1806.
His son, George G. Graham, was a member of the Assembly in 1841, and
a member of the Constitutional Convention in 1846. His son, James G.
Graham, was member of Assembly from Ulster County in 1849
1866, and he moved to Orange County later, which he represented in the
same body in 1877 and 1878.

The Schoonmaker family has left its impress upon the historical
affairs in Shawangunk as well as other sections of the county. Cornelius
C. Schoonmaker was a member of the first Assembly, in 1777, and held
that office throughout the Revolutionary War and until 1790, when he
was elected a member of the House of Representatives of the Second
Congress of the United States. He was again member of the State
Assembly in 1795. He was born in Shawangunk, married Sarah Hoff-
man, and left a considerable family.

The old Indian fort, which was destroyed by Captain Kreiger and his
men, while pursuing the Indians for the recapture of the prisoners taken
at the Esopus and Hurley massacres in 1663, is supposed to have been on

378

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

the Shawangunk Kill, on the property now owned by Mrs. Laura Varick,
of Poughkeepsie.

The firm of James B. Crowell & Son was established by the senior
member of the firm in 1872, and began the manufacture of hand sleighs,
ox bows and baker peels, to which later they added brick moulds and
bearers, and they now make nearly all kinds of brickmakers’ supplies.
The firm first started in an old saw mill, which was converted to their
needs, which, with various additions that had been made, was destroyed
by fire in 1896. A new plant was erected, and again burned in 1899. It
was at once rebuilt, on a larger scale than before, and is doing a pros-
perous business. The plant includes the large shop, a saw mill, store
houses, and lumber sheds, and employs some twenty-five men throughout
the year. It is located about two miles west of the village of Wallkill.

The Ulster Hat Company has a large brick factory in the village of
Wallkill, and employs about one hundred and twenty-five hands in the
manufacture of soft felt hats. The building is on the site of an old paper
mill, which was formerly operated there. The company was incorporated
in 1900.

The G. B. Mentz Co., of Wallkill, have an inportant factory in the
vicinity of the railroad, and manufacture brick moulds, wheelbarrows,
trucks, and all kinds of brickmakers’ supplies. The plant was established
in 1886 by Charles J. Langer, who erected the present building. It was
purchased by the present company in 1905. About twenty-five men are
employed.

There is a large factory at Dwaarskill, located on the site of one of the
old mills, where wagon rims are made. It is owned by Wilson Bruyn,
and has been in operation many years.

There were many taverns in this town in the olden time. Among the
first was that kept by John Graham, near the site of the Reformed Dutch
Church. This remained in the possession of the Graham family for many
years. During the Revolution George Smith kept a tavern at Bruynswick.
Among other old bonifaces there were Cornelius Louw, William T.
Schoonmaker, Eli Wilkinson, Andrew Schoonmaker, Simon Mullen, John
Hart, W. E. Marnes, and Hugh O’Donnel. Among the oldest merchants
were Robert Hoey, McEwan & Houselander, Cornelius DuBois Bruyn,
Jonathan Vernooy, and Thomas Edwards. Among the first physicians
was Dr. John Smedes. He was followed by Dr. James G. Graham and

TOWN OF SHAWANGUNK.

379

many others. John L. Lyon seems to have been the first practicing lawyer
in 1830.

The name ''Shawangunk/’ besides being difficult to pronounce, has
given rise to controversy and speculation regarding its origin and sig-
nification. The commonly accepted pronunciation is ^‘Shong-um.” In
Mather’s “Geology of New York,” the meaning of the word is given as
“the place of white rocks.” Others claim it to be “South Mountain,”
“South Water,” “swift current, or strong stream,” “Mink River,” “the
place of leeks,” etc. The origin is unquestionably Indian.

In an old census report of 1782, the population of the town is placed at
1,343 — ^males 717, females 626. In 1870 this total was increased to 2,823,
and in 1880 to 2,910. Last year the State census made it 2,467, of which
all except thirty-one were citizens. There were 555 persons who voted in
the town last year. The total value of real and personal property last
year was given as $866,899. The farms were valued at $1,574,970.

38o

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

CHAPTER XXXII.

TOWN OF ULSTER
By Charles E. Foote.

This is the youngest town in Ulster County, and its birth was due
to years of political misrule in the old town of Kingston, its civic
parent. It is located on the Hudson river, beginning just north of
the city of Kingston and extending to the south boundary line of the town
of Saugerties. From the river it extends westward, embracing the lower
portion of the Esopus Creek to the town of Kingston, with an extension
between the city and town of Kingston which reaches the bounds of
Hurley. Geographically, it is bounded on the north by the town of
Saugerties; on the east by the Hudson river; on the south by the city
of Kingston, and on the west by the towns of Hurley, Woodstock and
Kingston. It was organized in 1880.

It is in many respects one of the most attractive towns in the county.
Along the river front it has the high and sometimes precipitous bluffs
usual along this section of the Hudson, with deep ravines, and noisy,
chattering brooks breaking or cutting through at intervals, in a way to
delight the artistic eye of the landscape gardener who is preparing the
surface for the summer homes of those who can afford them, or ar-
ranging and beautifying the ancestral homes of those families whose
forebears wrested the ground from the denizens of the forest.

To the westward, the surface is undulating, sometimes hilly and
occasionally rocky. The Esopus Creek, which flows northward almost
the extreme length of the town, presents many attractive historical
aspects which are more properly treated in the town of Kingston, but the
physical beauties belong to Ulster.

It would be difficult to find a more delightful section of country than
the valley of the Esopus as it flows through the town of Ulster. The
“alluvial flats’^ which are a part of the early colonization of the Esopus
region, are here seen in their perfection, and their value as agricultural
lands have maintained the promise which they held forth nearly three

TOWN OF ULSTER.

381

centuries ago. The only tributary to the Esopus in the town of any
importance is the Sawkill, which comes in from the west about midway
of the town, and adds variety to the aspect.

In the northern part is Lake Katrine, a handsome sheet of water,
with private camps on the western side for those who desire relief during
the season of heat, and farms and fruit gardens in the vicinity for the
comfort and profit of the inhabitants.

The authorization for the erection of the town of Ulster was the en-
actment of the Board of Supervisors, the preamble of which reads as
follows :

“An act to divide the town of Kingston, in the county of Ulster, and
erect therefrom the town of Ulster and attach a part thereof to the
town of Woodstock, in said county, passed by the Board of Super-
visors at their annual meeting the 28th day of November in the year
one thousand eight hundred and seventy-nine. Two thirds of all the
members of said board voting in favor thereof under and in pursuance
of Chapter 319, of the Laws of 1872.”

This action of the supervisors was ratified at the session of the Legis-
lature, the following winter, and the first town meeting was held on the
first Tuesday in March, 1880. This was at George A. Stoddar’s hotel,
and the presiding officers were Tunis P. Osterhoudt, Gilbert S. Lockwood
and Josiah Lefevre.

One section of the law" creating the new town provided that the
change should not abridge the terms of local officers who might find
themselves in the town by reason of the change ; consequently there were
some officials on hand when the meeting was called.

James Myer, Jr., was the first Supervisor.

There are various commercial enterprises in the town. The farming,
gardening and dairying industries are extensive and profitable.

But the most important and extensive industry in the town of Ulster
at this time, and since its formation, is the manufacture of brick. The
vast deposits of clay which are found along the entire river front, and
the convenient shipping facilities, have made this part of the town very
valuable. Most of the farms there have been sold at large prices, far
beyond their agricultural value, and converted into immense brickyard
plants. These have been fitted with every modern appliance for the most
profitable operation, and the product ranks well in the market.

3^2

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

In this way many country homes with fine river-views, once so highly
prized, have been given up to the merciless march of commercialism. The
broad sweeping lawns that sloped so gracefully toward the river-bluff or
beach are now yawning chasms of raw clay flanked with immense kiln-
sheds and docks, and thickly strewn with various other rude structures
required in the business.

Thus today there are twelve separate brickyard plants on this busy river
front upon which nearly three thousand men are employed in the heart
of the brick-moulding season, which covers over five months of the year.
Beginning at the north end of the line, near the town of Saugerties,
the following yards are now in operation :

The Burhans yard, the Ulster Brick Company, the Goldrick yard, the
Rose Company, Smith Brothers, Lynch Brothers, the Dinan yard, Wash-
burn Brothers, the Hendricks Brick Company, the Terry Yard, Brigham
Brothers, and the Schultz yard. The largest of these are probably the
Schultz and Brigham yards. The total output of these various yards
for the season of 1906, as estimated by a practical and intelligent member
of one of these firms, was about 140,000,000 bricks. Taking his low esti-
mate of the average price for the whole season of $5.75 per thousand, the
total value of this product would be $795,000. While many of these
laborers reside in the town permanently a large number remain only
during the brick-moulding season.

Another important industry on this river front is the gathering and
housing of ice from the Hudson in the winter months and its shipment
to market in summer. There are many huge storehouses which require
thousands of men in the season of ice-cutting, gathering and storing, who
earn good wages at a season when they would otherwise be idle.

Ulster lies so close to the city of Kingston, that for educational pur-
poses, some of its territory was included in the District of Kingston.
There are now, however, schools in what is known as the Dutch Settle-
ment, at the north, one in Pine Bush neighborhood on the east side of- the
Esopus, and two in the extreme northeast corner of the town ; one in the
Flatbush neighborhood, along the Hudson, one in East Kingston, and one
at Edd)Tsrille.

As to the early settlement of the territory covering the town, one has
only to glance at the names of the present inhabitants and connect them
with the families of the early settlers of more than two centuries ago.

TOWN OF ULSTER.

383

There were among those strong characters of the earlier years the
Osterhoudts, the Burhans, the Hendricks, the Delmaters, Whittakers, Liv-
ingstons, Wynkoops, Leggs, Van Akens, Shufeldts, Bruyns, Keators,
Heermances, Fredenberghs, Hasbroucks, Schoonmakers, Kroms, and
many others. Their descendants are here and form a fair proportion
of the population of the town, and control a considerable portion of the
acreage. Ulster as a town is an example of the permanency of hereditary
attachment to the soil.

For their religious worship many of the people are affiliated with the
various churches at Kingston or Saugerties. There is a Roman Catholic
Church near the Dutch settlement, also one at East Kingston, and
Methodist Churches at Eddyville and East Kingston. Eddyville Church
was organized somewhere about 1825 or 1830 and incorporated August
25, 1836. For services it was connected far nearly twenty years with
either Kingston or Rondout, but began to have a regular pastor about
1855. A church building and parsonage were erected in 1871 at an
expense of about $18,000.

384

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

TOWN OF WA WARSING.

By Hon. Thomas E. Benedict.

ABORIGINAL DAYS.

IN the year 1663, hundred and twelve years before the battle of
Bunker Hill was fought, an armed force of one hundred and twenty-
seven soldiers, with eighty-three Indian allies, under the command
of a gallant Dutch Captain and two Lieutenants, entered the territory now
comprising the town of Wawarsing. They were well armed and equipped,
and had with them two cannon. They took possession of a palisaded
Indian fort which had been abandoned two days before by a force of
Indian warriors, who had taken part in the burning and massacre of the
inhabitants of Wiltwyck, (now Kingston), a short time previous. The
Indians had brought a part of their prisoners, women and children, to this
fort. There is no evidence that a white person had set foot in Wawarsing
prior to the coming of Captain Martin Creiger and Lieutenants Stillwell
and Courvenhover, who had been sent by Governor Peter Stuyvesant from
Albany, (Fort Orange) to punish the Esopus Indians. While this military
expedition was bloodless, it was no holiday undertaking, for the command
was pursuing a victorious band of Indians through a pathless wilderness
for over twenty miles and upon their own territory. Capt. Creiger, in his
report of the expedition to the Indian fort, wrote thus of the locality :
“When about four English miles from the fort, Lieutenants Corven-
hover and Stillwell, and Ensign Niesen, with one hundred and nineteen
men, were ordered forward to effect the surprise, if possible” (while he
followed with the cannon). “They executed their task with great celerity
but found the fort abandoned.” ***** When night came on
they had only taken a squaw and three horses, the latter having been car-
ried off at the time of the massacre. At the break of day (July 28, 1663),
the officers held a council and determined to go in search of the Indians
to the mountains, where Mrs. Van Insbroch, the guide, had been a pris-
oner. Accordingly one hundred and forty men ascended the rugged

Thomas E. Benedict.

TOWN OF WA WARSING.

385

mountain sides of the blue hills (Shawangunk Mountains), taking the
squaws with them, but met with no success. They were then directed to a
great high mountain, whither the Indians had fled, taking with them
seven Christian prisoners. After experiencing vast difficulty, no Indians
were found there. * * * * forces were discovered on all

sides, and the friendly Indians advised against any further pursuit, be-
cause the whole tribe was alarmed, the expedition returned to the fort,
having failed to find the Indians.’' Capt. Creiger wrote further: ‘T went
out of their fort with fifty men to a distance of half a mile, there cut down
several plantations of maize, threw into the fire divers pits full of maize
and beans.” On July 31, Creiger at early dawn set fire to the Indian
stronghold, and, while it with the council house were in full blaze, took up
the return march to Wiltwyck, where he arrived the same evening.

Beside this mention of the Indian fort, it is recorded by Captain Crieger
and confirmed by statements of Mrs. Insbroch and the squaws, that the
fort was on a high hill near a stream as wide as the Esopus at Wiltwyck,
wdthin speaking distance of the blue hills, Creiger having parleyed with
the Indians thereon from the fort. It is further described as near a stream
with rifts and rapids in three or four places, with table lands around, and
with great hills west and southwest. While it is idle to attempt to rescue
from the two centuries and a half which have nearly elapsed since the loca-
tion of this historic fort, it seems that the great majority of the facts
brought down to us point to Indian Hill, at Wawarsing, east of the old
cemetery, as the place indicated by the late Jonathan W. Hasbrouck in his
history of the fort. The location of the fort at the head of the Kerhanksen
creek, west of the village of Kerhonkson, in a rocky ravine near the boun-
dary line between Rochester and Wawarsing, by Rev. Charles Scott, D.D.,
in a paper read before the Ulster County Historical Society, does not ap-
pear to be supported by the facts. Indian Hill, in 1663, was probably much
higher than now, as the erosions of time on such a glacier moraine have
greatly depressed its lines. At that period it must have stood nearly one
hundred feet above the creek (Rondout), which then flowed at its east
base, some hundreds of feet west of the present channel. An accurate
estimate of the distance of Creiger’s march to the fort must be based upon
the time taken. Any distance more than twenty-six miles southwest direct
from Wiltwyck would place the fort south of Napanoch amidst sur-
roundings not supported by any three of the necessary physical facts re-

386

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

quired by its accurate location. There is no point which can successfully
challenge the location at Indian Hill, except the promontory at Lost Cor-
ners, between Wawarsing and Napanoch, at the great bend in the stream
which gave the name of Wawarsing to this locality. An authentic loca-
tion of this ancient fort would render the spot a worthy object of interest
among the historic colonial landmarks of New York.

E. M. Ruttenber, author of “The Indian Tribes of the Hudson Valley,"'
writes me as follows regarding the old fort :

Kahanksen and -son in treaty of 1665; Kahansinck in patent to Peter Lowe,
1708-22, etc. It takes interest from its connection with the location of what is
known, historically, as the “Old Fort,” as distinguished from the “New Fort,” in
the war of 1663, when both forts were destroyed by the Dutch. Its site is uncer-
tain. It is spoken of without name in the treaty of peace of 1664, in connection
with a district of country admitted to have been ‘^conquered by the sword,’' extena-
ing as far as the ‘‘two captured forts.” In treaty of 1665, with Governor Nicolls,
the district is described as “A certain parcel of land lying and being to the west
and southwest of a certain creek or river called by the name of Kahankson, and so
up to the head thereof where the Old Fort stood, and so with a direct line from
thence through the woods and crosse the meadows to the Great Hill lying to the
west or southwest, which Great Hill is to be the true west or southwest bounds,
and the said creek called Kahanksen the north and northwest bounds of the said
lands.” In treaty deed with Governor Andross, April 27, 1677, the boundary lines
of the tract, “as they were^ to be thereafter,” was described: “Beginning at the
Ronduyt Kil, thence to a kil called Kahakasnix, thence north along the hills to a
kil called Magowasing-inck, thence to the Second Fall, easterly to Freudeyack-
Kqmick on the Groote River, south to Ronduyt Kil.” The stream called Magow-
asing-inck seems to be certainly identified in patents to Henry Beekman and Ann
Beake in 1685, as that now known as Wawarsing creek, and its identification, if
correct, places the creek called Kahankson south of that stream. Its location is
perhaps made specific in patent to Peter Lowe in 1722, the survey of which located
its south line as “Beginning by a Great Fall called Honeck, thence up the creek
northerly to ye High Mountains, including several small pieces of land, * * *
from ye bounds of Kahansinck to the bourns of the High Mountains, as the bounds
were formerly settled by the articles of peace.” The record evidence seems to be
conclusive that the fort was in the vicinity of the stream now known as the Sand-
berg or Napanock creek, the falls called Honeck, now called Honk, being at
Napanock a short distance north of Ellenville. More specifically than this record
location its site pnnot be fixed. Two efforts have been made in that direction,
evidently by parties who did not have the opportunity to examine the records, or
who knew nothing concerning them. The first was by the late John W. Hasbrouck,
who assigned it to Vernoy creek, opposite Wawarsing; and the second by the late
Rev. Charles Scott, D.D., who, in a paper read before the Ulster County Historical
Society in 1861, assigned it to the head of what is now called Kahanksen creek,
some miles north of “the Great Fall called Honeck,” “on the south side” of that
stream “near the boundary line between the townships of Wawarsing and Roches-
ter, just north of what is now called Shurter’s hill, about two miles from the mouth
of the stream and one mile from its head, in a rocky ravine and difficult of access.”
Aside from the record location quoted above, which cannot be disputed, there are
several points in the Doctor’s location that would require examination and com-
parison with Kregier’s Journal, the Great Hill to the west and southwest especially,
and his estimate of thirty miles from Wildwyck. Kregier wrote: “The road or
course from Wildwyck to the fort of the Esopus Indians lies mostly to the south-

TOWN OF WA WARSING.

387

west, about ten (Dutch) miles from our fort.” Dutch miles were frequently
counted as equal to four English miles. By standard measure the distance would
be about thirty-six English miles. Kregier’s miles were probably based on the
time rule of one and one-quarter hour’s walk to a Dutch mile, which was a frac-
tion over three and one-half English. His time on his return trip over the road
which he had made on going out, was about sixteen hours, probably more, as he
set fire to the fort “at the dawn of day” and marched out, and arrived at Wild-
wyck at nine in the evening. Sixteen hours’ walk would yield a fraction over
forty-four English miles. The location of the fort seems to have been well known
when the treaty deed of 1677 was negotiated. Dr. Scott’s site may be about thirty
miles from Kingston, but it was not Kregier’s site according to his Dutch miles.

The fort was a palisaded village larger than that at Shawongunk. Around it were
maize fields and pits filled with maize and beans, and “full half a mile” (Dutch,
about two miles English) from it were several plantations of maize which were
cut down by Kregier’s soldiers, in all “about fifteen morgens,” or about two hun-
dred and fifteen acres. There were meadows beyond also, while on the “west or
southwest,” was “the Great Hill.” There was no defence of the fort; its occupants
had abandoned it “two days before” Kregier’s troops entered it. A particular de-
scription of it has not been handed down. Under date of July 31, 1663, Kregier
wrote: “In the morning at dawn of day, set fire to the fort and all the houses,
and while they were burning marched out in good order.” And so disappears
forever the Indian stronghold, even its precise site unknown. Probably since
iGegier left it in flames its site has never been trodden by an intelligent white man.

The several orthographies of the name of the creek, near the head of which the
fort stood, may, apparently, be resolved into Kahangh’sing, from Lenape Gahan,,
(with guttural aspirate gh), meaning “shallow, low water — next to being dried
up”; es, ’s, diminutive, “less than” at, and -ink, location, the combination reading,
“Near a place of shallow water.” In other words, the fort was near the head of
a small stream of water, a spring or fountain.

E. M. Ruttenber.

THE WAWARSING CLAN.

The Esopus Indians were the equals of other contemporary savages
anywhere in the land. They were distinguished as agriculturists. Captain
Creiger, in his report to the Governor of the Colony after the capture of
the Indian fort in 1663, said the Indians raised enough corn and beans in
Ulster to supply the whole colony of New York. The Wawarsing Indians
were the peers of any others of their tribe. The capital village of the
tribe, with the council house and their largest fort was located among
them. They were the guardians of the pits filled with corn and beans for
use in war or famine. They were located midway on the great trail from
the Hudson to the Delaware. Within their territory converged from the
West the trails which centered at the Rondout from the Neversink and
Esopus rivers, and which led to the Delaware at Peenpack (Cuddeback-
ville), up the Neversink to the Beaverkill, thence down the East Branch
of the Delaware to the main stream and thence to a point further West.
Until the advent of the white man, there was no doubt an inflow and out-
flow of rival parties over these trails, which did not stop when civilization

388

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

set its foot in Wawarsing, as it was over these very trails that Brant and
his Tory allies came to massacre and strike terror at Pine Bush, Fantine-
kill and Wawarsing over a century later. Across these trails General
Sullivan led his army which in 1779 destroyed forever the war power of
the Six Nations within this State.

Amidst these environments, the Wawarsing Clan kept well the charge
given them. They celebrated here the sacred feasts of the seasons and of
war, danced and performed the weird rites of their worship, and roused
their fury for the war path. Their surrender of their fort and capital to
Captain Creiger was dictated by the fact that they had not yet learned the
use of firearms, and had no chance of success against the force of well-
equipped and experienced soldiers with cannon. This clan afterward
lived in peace with the whites to whom they sold their lands. It is prob-
able that the settlers with whom they came in contact were more prudent
in dealing with Indians than were those of Wiltwyck, where the selling
of rum to the savages was the prime cause of the troubles that led to the
Esopus wars. Indians held small tracts of land in Wawarsing up to 1787,
as on May 2d of that year an Indian sold to Johannes G. Hardenbergh a
tract of land south of Kerhonkson.*

WAWARSING AN INDIAN NAME.

The town was incorporated under the name of Wawarsink. In the
treaty deed with the Esopus Indians, made by Governor Stuyvesant in
1667, it is written “Magowaassinghinck.” The incorporate name was no
doubt taken from the Indian deed given William Petersen Beake in 1680,
and the survey of patent given to his widow, Anna Beake, in 1685, in
which the name is spelled ‘‘Wawarsink.” Old deeds and surveys of the
colonial period spell the name Wawarsincke, Warsink, Wawasing and
Wawesinck. There is no doubt as to the name being of Indian origin, as
it has been applied to this section from its earliest history by the whites,
who evidently adopted it from the Indians. Sylvester’s History of Ulster
County quotes Rev. N. M. Jones, of Samsonville, an authority on Indian
names, as defining its meaning to be “Holy place of sacred feasts and
dances.” Mr. E. M. Ruttenber, author of the “Indian Tribes of the Hud-
son River,” writes that “Mr. William R. Gerrard, an Algonquin student

* This deed I have in my possession. It conveys for the c'onsideration of eighteen shillings
•current money of the province of New York a small parcel of land. It is signed by Awanna-
mock, the Indian, and is witnessed by Jacob Hoornbeek, Dyrk Hoornbeek and Wishela, the
Indian. — Author.

TOWN OF WA WARSING.

389

of the highest authority, gives the reading of Wawarsink as from ‘Wa-
wa,’ meaning winding around, turning in and out, twisting as an eddying
current or repeated bends. The second word he reads as ‘Naw’as-ink^*
from Nawa’s, a point of promontory, and ‘ing,’ location at (or in or near)^.
where paths or boundaries come together.” Mr. Ruttenber adds: “The^
place took its name from a topographical feature in the proximity. Noth-
ing is more frequent in Indian names than the dropping of an initial
syllable and the changing of initials arising from the speech of the Indian
in throwing the voice forward to the penult. Another peculiarity is the
dialectic exchange of 1, n and r. There are many examples to be quoted
in Ulster County.” Another necessary result of the work of the early
scribes was the effort to make an Indian word somewhat resemble the
general sound, just as one would spell a German or Russian name “by
ear.” This reading of the word plainly indicates the locality which gave
the name to Wawarsing. It is at the Lost Corner, north of the bend in
the Rondout just below the Humiston house between Napanoch and
Wavrarsing. The promontory is there, with the high ridge leading to it
(through which the highway is cut), thrust directly in the path of the
Rondout, which for a distance, flows as straight as an arrow, directly
striking the high promontory, some seventy-five feet in height, then turn-
ing to the right at a degree more than a right angle against a large rock,
which juts into the stream from the left bank. The stream then flows for
a short distance in shallow water to a point where it turns sharply to the
left toward Wawarsing. Here in the stream is the “winding around,”
“the turning in and out,” here are the “repeated bends,” and here is the
“eddying and twisting current,” caused by the great rock, which juts
nearly athwart the stream. Here was the ford which the Indians used to
enter the mountain trail, which led up to the Topatcoke spring and across
to the new fort on the east side of the Shawangunk. All these physical
features were more pronounced two and a half centuries ago, when the
Indians marked these topographical features of earth, rock and water, at a
period when the water flowed throughout the year near flood-tide and
the contiguous hills had not been denuded by the erosions of over two
centuries. The map of the Anna Beake patent deed shows that the
Rondout in 1685 bent sharply to the northeast at the east side of the Lost
Corner promontory and flowed to the junction of the VerNooy Kill at a
distance of several hundred feet west of its present channel, giving iti

390

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

then a long curve toward the hills on the west as it passed the present
road to Wawarsing railroad station.

: TOPOGRAPHY.

The topography of the town of Wawarsing is quite unlike that of any
other town of the county. It is without mountain peaks, yet it has but
little low lands, these being a narrow strip through the town along the
Rondout and Sandburgh streams. The range of the Shawangunk Moun-
tains occupies about one-fifth of the town’s acreage. It lies on the east
side, and the great section of the mountain is wholly within the town
excepting its steep eastern incline. The range here rises to its greatest
lieight. It is very unique as a mountain elevation, as its escarpment ter-
tninates abruptly in a broad plateau or tableland, one to three miles wide.
'This presents a rugged area of cliffs, rocky slopes, broad levels, high
ridges, lakes, swamps, dark ravines and soilless face. In places, however,
there is tillable land, while streams traverse it, with several waterfalls,
pne being sixty-four feet high. Sam’s Point rises to a height of 2,200
feet, and this and other points give a widely extended view, covering the
Hudson and Wallkill valleys and the Catskill mountain regions. The
mountain lakes of Mohonk, Minnewaska, Awosting, Maratanza and the
Mud Pond are all near, lying near the level of the mountain top, and all
but Mohonk and Minnewaska are within the town. The Coxingkill,
Peterskill, Sanderskill and Stonykill streams rise in this section, and
flow northward beyond the boundaries of the town into the Rond-
out. Several small streams, rising near the eastern slope of the
mountain, fall in beautiful cascades down the steep incline and enter
the Shawangunkill. Natural ice caves are caused by the freezing of
water and lodgment of snow in the deep crevices and ravines in the
mountain top and near Sam’s Point. From the west bank of the
Rondout near Napanoch down the valley, and above that place along
the Sandburgh, and at other points not characterized by intervening
lowlands, start the foothills which rise among the highest peaks of
the Catskill Mountains some twenty miles away. These ridges, often
broken, rocky^ and serrated, enclosing intervening valleys traversed by
streams, rise to a height of nearly two thousand feet within the town, on
either side of the lower ridges of the VerNooy Kill and Lackawack neigh-
borhoods. Amidst these elevations the sources of the Sandburgh, Green-

TOWN OF WA WARSING.

391

field, Good Beerkill, Fantinekill and VerNooy Kill streams have their
origin, and all flow in nearly parallel lines with the Rondout, which enters
the town from Sullivan county at the northwest border. Streams deemed
worthy of mention by early surveyors, flowing into the Rondout and
Sandburgh from the west slope of the Shawangunk Mountain, have
ceased to exist except in seasons of high water. The town has an area
of about 60,000 acres. It borders on Sullivan county on two sides, and
touches the towns of Denning, Rochester, Gardiner and Shawangunk. Not
over one-third of the acreage can be called improved land. Over one-half
is wooded, mostly with small second growth. Most of the ridges are of
rock formation, with high ledges, and the lower lands are made up mostly
of hills, which are largely moraines and deposits of the glacial and drift
periods. Flag stone abounds generally on the west slope of the town.
From a period as early as 1730, lead has been known to exist in the moun-
tains near Ellenville, and veins of lead and zinc have been worked at
different periods for over sixty years at Ellenville, but without profit.
Iron ore of an inferior quality is found in considerable veins in the ridge
on the west side of the State road leading from Ellenville to Kerhonkson.
The water of the town is excellent, and that flowing from the west slope
of the Shawangunk is exceptionally pure, owing to the siliceous character
of the rock preventing the solution of mineral substances. Many beauti-
ful waterfalls and glens abound along the streams, and the whole town^
ship is rich in natural features of great beauty. The landscape is gener-
ally exceedingly picturesque, and the elevations afford wide views of
unsurpassed variety and grandeur. In many respects, the town is unsur-
passed in unique and charming natural scenery.

FIRST WHITE SETTLERS.

With the settlement of Hurley in 1662, it is probable that whites as
hunters or prospectors, found their way up the valley of the Rondout. At
that period, the table lands south of Hurley had been largely denuded of
trees by the burning of the forests by Indians, and extensive corn fields
and orchards had taken their place. The first recorded white persons to
be at Wawarsing were the prisoners taken there after the burning of
Wiltwyck in 1663, and later rescued by Capt. Creiger’s command of
Dutch soldiers. The glowing accounts of the country he had invaded,
as given by this officer, on his return to Fort Orange (Albany), excited
the speculative interest of several merchants, who soon afterward made

392

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

considerable purchases of lands of the Indians in Mombaccus, Wawar-
sing and Mamakating. Among these purchases were Jocham Staets and
William Petersen Beake, to whom deeds were given later by the Governor
of the Colony. The deed of the Beake purchase was given to his widow in
1685. These two patents covered the central portion of Wawarsing, north
of the Rondout at Napanoch and beyond Wawarsing village. These
grants were soon followed by the Knightsfield patent and the DeGrootin
transport patent. It does not appear that these original white landowners
did anything toward the settlement of their purchases. They later sold
to others, the new purchasers being residents of Ulster. On September
15, 1705, Louis Bevier, one of the New Paltz patentees, purchased of Col.
Jacob Rutsen, of Marbletown, several hundred acres of land located at
Napanoch, and about the same time Col. Rutsen conveyed to Cornelius
Ver Nooy, a Hollander, a tract of land which had been patented to Anna
Beake in 1685, which covered the site of the present village of Wawar-
sing. Cornelius VerNooy later occupied his purchase and erected on the
VerNooy Kill the first grist mill within the present territory of the town-
ship. This mill was brought from Holland by the pioneer himself. Louis
Bevier settled one or more of his sons at Napanoch in 1720. By his will,
he conveyed to his five sons, share and share alike, all his lands, tene-
ments, etc., at Napanoch. It appears that a considerable settlement must
have grown up at this period, but the exact date of the arrival of the
first resident of the town is not known. At the end of the first quarter of
the eighteenth century the line of settlers had reached Leurenkill and
Mamacotting, and the trail to Mahackamack (Port Jervis) had become
the mine road known later in military operations of the Federal govern-
ment.

Besides the Beviers and VerNooys, among the earliest names of
the Wawarsing pioneers were those of Hoornbeek, DeWitt, Low, Har-
denbergh. Kettle, Nottingham, Kortright, Helm, Van Vleit, Middagh,
Benton, Heesel, Rogers, Simpson, Turner, Terwilliger, Denniston, Rut-
sen, Ten Broch, Bettle and Osterhoudt. Up to the period of the Revolu-
tion, the settlements were confined to the valley, with the exception of a
few houses up the VerNooy-kill. As late as 1786, but eight settlers were
on the Rondout above Napanoch, and these nearly all were in the district
south of the stream above Honk Falls. In I799> no road had been opened
up the Good Beerkill or Greenfield streams, and the field notes of State

TOWN OF WAWARSING.

393

surveyors on file at Albany, at that period refer to but one settler along
the Sandburg above the Homowack neighborhood.

The first settlers were mostly of Dutch and Huguenot extraction. They
had not come to their new homes in a spirit of adventure nor as soldiers
and traders, but as men seeking homes for high conscientious purposes
and to escape tyrannical religious influences which they abhorred. They
met at first in family worship, but later was erected at Wawarsing Cor-
ners, about 1745, the first church edifice in the town. Here the Dutch
language was at first used in the service, but later, as the English-speaking
settlers increased, the Dutch and English tongues were used alternately.

COLONIAL PERIOD.

For a period of forty years after Captain Creiger had made his victori-
ous march to the heart of Magowasinghinck, the Indian remained in
undisputed possession, kindled his council fires, and danced his corn
dance in peace. During this period, land speculators, excited by Captain
Creiger’s glowing description of the valley of the Rondout, no doubt
obtained by purchase from the Indians much of the land from the Kahan-
sinck creek on the north to Mamacotting on the south, and from the blue
hills in the east to the “great Hill” (probably the Peekamoose) in the
west. These lands were later patented to persons who purchased rights
of the speculators. From the first settlement at Wawarsing Corners,
about 1706, up to the period of the Revolution, the sturdy, homespun
pioneer forefather and foremother, on foot and oil horseback, extended
this line of settlement along the great trail from Esopus to Peenpack.
Their log and stone houses were builded near and around the central
palisaded house-fort, for safety and defense when needed. Within these
rude homes the wide, open fireplace gave cheer, and the fertile lands and
forest and stream afforded abundant grain and game for their use. The
flax field and the home flock met the demand for household needs of
wearing apparel, fashioned by domestic skill. Social life was free and
unfettered in an atmosphere of equality and neighborly sympathy. The
first grist mill being at Wawarsing Corners, it became for that reason
the more important business center. Occasional loads of surplus grain,
with furs, hides, etc., were sent to Wiltwyck, to barter for molasses,
powder, rum, metals, and other necessities. The increased value of land
gave increased property value, and the bringing of negro slaves added
to the more thorough development of the farms, and increased produc-

394

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

tion.* Certain men became leaders, by sheer force of ability, in each
neighborhood. The settlers were largely farmers, and both men and
women were prudent, economical and industrious, and beyond doubt
happy in their unostentatious lives. They were as a community strongly
religious. The early citizenship was stirred with the politics of change
from Dutch to English rule, as the colonial government slipped from the
hands of its original founders. These conditions remained much the
same up to the throwing overboard of the cargo of tea in Boston harbor
by the Massachusetts patriots.

THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD.

News of the battle of Lexington probably reached Rochester about
May, 1775, having been received in New York April 25 of that year.
Electrified by the intelligence, the patriotic burghers began the work of
preparation for the inevitable conflict. They zealously followed the
leadership of their distinguished fellow citizen, the patriotic George Clin-
ton, and kept in close touch with the independent movement which cen-
tered at Kingston.

Tw’O hundred and twenty-eight of the male inhabitants of the town of
Rochester, which at the time included Wawarsing, signed in 1775, the
articles of association adopted by 'The Freemen, Freeholders and Inhabi-
tants of the City and County of New York,” which articles were sent to
each county in the State. When these articles reached Ulster, its citizens
were almost unanimous in endorsing them, and it is not recorded that a
single male inhabitant of the town of Rochester refused to sign and so
to pledge his life, fortune and honor in support of representative and
independent government.

Andres DeWitt, Jacob Hoornbeek, Johannes Schoonmaker, Joachim
Schoonmaker, Jacobus Van Wagenen and Andrew Bevier represented
Rochester at the Revolutionary Convention held in New Paltz in May,
1775. Two of these patriots lived within the present territory of Wawar-
sing.

Officers and soldiers from the present Wawarsing territory took part
in the battles of Saratoga, White Plains and the defense of Forts Clinton

* I have in my possession the original vendue list of sale of personal effects of Cornelius
Bevier, dec., of Napanoch, held June 3, 1790, at which sale two negro slaves were sold, also
inventory of estate of Tjatie Dubois, dec., naming as part of her personal property three neg^o
slaves named Tone, Peit and Beaty. Also permits for slaves to visit for a day from their homes,
and leases of slaves for hire. — Author.

TOWN OF WAWARSING.

395

and Montgomery at West Point. The territory west of the valley of the
Rondout and Mamakating was termed in the military annals of the
Revolution ‘‘ the Western Border,” and it received the especial care and
supervision of General Washington, as commander-in-chief. He speedily
discovered that an attempt would be made to assist the plan to effect a
junction of the British forces of Clinton and Burgoyne on the Hudson, by
an expedition of Tories and Indians, into the central Hudson Valley from
the west, through Ulster county. The Indian raid at Pine Bush, below
Kerhonkson, September 5, 1778, warned the people of the Rondout valley
that war was at their very doors. The massacre of the ill-fated command
of Lieutenant Graham, with nineteen men, at the Chestnut Woods (Gra-
hamsville) immediately followed. At this time there was a military en-
campment above Honk Falls.* This was undoubtedly situated on the
flats on the east side of the present power-plant lake. Here Colonels Van
Cortland, Pawling and Cantine, in turn, commanded during the Revolu-
tion. The massacres at Fantinekill and Minnesink, in 1779, were due to
the attempt of the British to frustrate the contemplated expedition of
General Sullivan. Governor Clinton at once took steps to stop the Indian
raids, and directed the erection of forts from the Esopus to the Delaware
One fort was to be erected at Leghweck (Lackawack). On May 22,
1779, Colonel Pawling wrote Governor Clinton that, “owing to the
heavy rains, little has been done at Leghweck.” This fort was to be a
“block-house inclosed by a breastwork proof against musketry, with an
abattis redoubt. The works are to be of such size and so constructed as
to be defensible with one hundred and fifty men or two hundred men.”
On May 16, 1779, Governor Clinton wrote General George Clinton: “I
have ordered the levies to rendezvous at Leghweck and Shandeacon,” a
small “part of them having already been at these places, and others are on
the march.” Colonel John Cantine wrote Governor Clinton under date of

“Rochester, May ye 15th, 1779.

“Dear Sir:

“I have met this day with the Inhabitants of this town in order to get carages
and tools to Begin the Works at Lackawack, with which they have cheerfully fur-
nished me.”

Colonel Clinton also reported the troops at “Honk” at that time as iii,
of which 27 had been assigned to Mamacitting (the block-house was at

* Original Indian name Hoonck. The Peter Low deed of 1708 says the bounds began at the
fall called Hoonck. This word stands Haueck, “a rapid river,” an adjectival prefix probably-
being lost— Keht-Haueck, a strong stream or great stream, descending rapid slopes. — Ruttenber.

396

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

the present location of Wurtsboro), twenty to guard the stores at
Brown's, in Wawasinck, and the balance being available for the march to
Lackawack. On May 29, 1779, Major Van Benschoten reported fifty men
at Lackawack. There was maintained at this time a regular horse guard
patrol between the Lackawack fort and those at Peenpack and Shandaken,
through the woods over the Peekamoose trail and the Neversink trail,
each being through forests without a settlement for a distance of over
twenty miles. The center of all these operations was in Wawarsing, and
the locality became of the same strategic importance in the revolutionary
war that it had been in the councils of the Esopus Indians a century be-
fore.

In 1780 a small force of Indians came over the Neversink trail and
committed depredations in the Lackawack and Wawarsing vicinity. The
last raid was in 1781, at Wawarsing Corners, when several houses were
burned and the old Dutch church injured.

When the British were attempting the conquest of the Hudson valley.
Governor Clinton ordered the removal of the State papers from Kingston
to Rochester. They were in part placed in the old store-house erected in
1762, now standing one-half mile south of Kerhonkson on the Rondout.
It was occupied by that great patriot and leading citizen, Johannes F.
Hardenbergh.

On December 17, 1777, the State Council of Safety, in session at Hur-
ley, took this action:

“Whereas, The public records of this State are now placed at Nape-
nagh (Napanoch), in Ulster County, under a guard subject to the direc-
tion of Hendrecus Hoornbeek and Johannes Hardenbergh and Comfort
Sands, Esquires, in which situation they are for the present esteemed in a
place of safety; and from the condition of the roads and uncertain state
of the weather at this season of the year, it is unpractical to remove said
records at present to any place of safety.

Resolved, That the said records of this State remain in their present
situation under guard as aforesaid, etc."

During this period a body of British prisoners was quartered near
Napanoch, removal from Kingston being made before the burning of that
place.

During the winter of 1780-81, when Washington’s army was suffering
from lack of food and clothing at Valley Forge, the New York legisla-

TOWN OF WA WARSING.

397

ture passed an act authorizing the military authorities of the State to
issue certificates in payment for supplies to be sent to the army at Valley
Forge. These certificates were to be receivable at full value for taxes.
Dirk Wyncoop, of Kingston, was appointed agent in Ulster county to
receive supplies and issue the certificates. The people in Wawarsing
valley contributed liberally to this purpose, supplies being received at
Johannes G. Hardenbergh’s, who distributed the certificates. Many of
the receivers of the certificates never applied them for tax payments, but
made their value a patriotic contribution to the continental cause.*

Circumsitances warrant the belief that General Washington passed
through Wawarsing valley one or more times to meet Governor Clinton,
who was his strong right arm in the operations of the northern army. On
his visit to Kingston, 1783, it is very probable that he took the Delaware-
Mamakating-Rondout Valley route, as he passed the night before he
reached Kingston at the Lounsbery mansion in Stone Ridge.

It must have been owing to the familiarity of the people of Wawarsing
with the stirring military operations around them, as well as with the
great revolutionary characters of the time, that they exercised so little
care in preserving either traditions or permanent records regarding the
sites of forts or defences of the revolutionary era, or erected physical
marks for the benefit of posterity. They even neglected to hand down
many of the high honors belonging to some of the active patriotic families
of that day, and whose descendants still reside in the town.

BUSINESS HISTORY.

History does not record any especial business enterprise or effort on
the part of the early settlers of the section of Wawarsing. Up to the
Nineteenth Century, the scattered neighborhoods, so far inland, had but
little encouragement for enterprise in trade, depending as it did on long
and heavy transportation outlay. Surplus farm produce and furs were
the chief articles of trade. The communities were practically self-sus-
taining. Enterprise and labor were directed to clearing new lands and
promoting settlement. The local blacksmith and wagonmaker were at
every center of population. The traveling cobbler made his annual visit
to each family. At distant intervals a local tannery and cloth mill was

* I have in my possession Certificate No. 6,212, issued to Margaret Ver Nooy for wheat and
corn to the value of £4 los. and Certificates No. 6213-14, issued Cornelius Bevier, value £7
12s., neither of which were applied in tax payments. — Author.

398

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

established, to meet the neighborhood needs in the manufacture of leather
and home grown wool. The house linen was spun and woven in nearly
every family from home-grown flax. Wawarsing Corners was the busi-
ness center for a period of over one hundred years. Here Cornelius Ver
Nooy, the pioneer, erected the first grist mill, which he brought from
Holland. Here also was built the first church, and the first roads pro-
jected into the western wilderness were here started up the VerNooy Kill
and towards Lackawack. The supremacy of Wawarsing Corners as the
center of business, social, religious and political activity, remained un-
challenged for nearly one hundred years in the progress of the colonial
and early State development of the territory comprising the present town-
ship of Wawarsing.

The formation of the town of Wawarsing from the town of Rochester,
in 1806, and the inauguration of its own civil government, marked the
beginning of a new era in settlement and development. New roads were
at once built and needed bridges erected, opening the Greenfield and
Drowned Land sections, with their wealth of hemlock and pine. Ellenville
was settled at this period and began to grow rapidly, as it drew to it the
trade of the then growing neighborhoods of the Good Beerkill and Green-
field streams, as also those of the Leurenkill and Mamacotting to the
south.

At the period of town organization, Wawarsing’s families comprised
the following representative names : Allen, Akerly, Addison, Bruyn, Bur-
ger, Botsford, Bevier, Barber, Broadhead, Belew, Besley, Brown, Boggs,
Black, Crossman, Cantine, Cristle, Chambers, De Witt, De Ptiy, Doll,
Devens, Devoe, Douglass, Davis, Demarest, Divine, Evelin, Freer, Fair-
child, Fair, Gere, Gilbert, Grey, Hardenbergh, Himrodt, Hawley, Hoorn-
beek. Helm, Holmes, Heermance, Hixon, Hook, Hassock, Johnson, Kort-
right. Kettle, Kimball, Knox, Kellock, Lemly, Le Fevre, McKnight,
Mitchell, Mullen, Newkirk, Oostrander, Payne, Pride, Price, Schouten,
Skidmore, Shaver, Sarles, Sheely, Turner, Tompkins, Tyrrell, Thompson,
Van Wagener, Ver Nooy, Van Gorder, Wodin, Washburn, Woods and
Wilson.

The first large Tannery was started in Greenfield in 1814, by Henry
Southwick. It did not prove a success, owing to the long haul to market
of its product. While settlements increased and much new land was
brought under cultivation, the small needs of each family kept the com-

Benjamin F. Neal, M.D

TOWN OF WAWARSING.

399

munity in a primitive condition, until the work of erecting the Delaware
and Hudson canal commenced in 1824. This great internal improvement
caused a business boom in the valley, which grew with the completion of
the work in 1828. The low cost of canal transportation started industrial
enterprise at once. At Napanoch, in 1829, the Southwick Bros, com-
menced making axes, and within a few years large tanneries were in
course of erection or completion at Greenfield, Ellenville, Napanoch,
Homowack, Lackawack, and Wawarsing. The saw mill followed the
bark-peelers, and millions of feet of hemlock and pine from the forests
of the Cape, Drowned Land and Greenfield section found ready market.
Every canal port became a business center, with canal store-house and
retail store. Ellenville grew rapidly, and Kerhonkson, Port Ben and
Homowack were soon postoffices and centers of trade. Boat building
developed into a profitable industry at several points along the canal. In
1836 the Ellenville Glass Works were established, and the enterprise and
strength of its management at once placed Ellenville in the van as the
growing trade center of the canal line between Rondout and Honesdale.
Napanoch was its equal in business importance at this time. Here the
enterprise of the Southwick Bros, in a large tannery and in axe making
was carrying the name of the place into the business marts of the whole
country. The virgin soil of the town, as it was denuded of the forests by
the axes of the bark-peelers and lumbermen, was brought rapidly into
improved lands by the sturdy German and Irish workmen, who found
employment in the glass works, iron mills and tanneries of the locality.

In the early 50’s the plank road era began. The citizens of Wawarsing
united with those of Newburgh and Sullivan county, and constructed
plank roads, leading from Ellenville to Newburgh and Woodburn, and
from Napanoch to Grahamsville. In 1853 Bange iron forge was
erected at Napanoch, and a blast furnace was put in operation in 1859 to
convert the iron ore found in that vicinity into pig iron. The axe industry
was also greatly enlarged, and later, mills for rolling merchantable iron
and making knives used in the manufacture of tobacco and the making
of straw paper were added to Napanoch industries. All these enterprises
were the product of local capital in the main, and all were conducted with
varying success up to the 70’s, when changed trade conditions determined
it to be more profitable to do the work elsewhere. The Ellenville Glass
Works contributed more to the town’s prosperity and growth than any

400

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

single industry. But all the industries mentioned, with the wealth of hem-
lock bark and lumber, and aided by the cheap canal transportation and
cheap coal, added greatly to local prosperity and development up to the
period of the Civil War. The first bank — the First National — was
established in 1863 at Ellenville. Previously the banking business of the
town had been transacted mostly at Kingston, Newburgh, Middletown
and Rondout. The town’s activity continued during the Civil War period
and up into the 70’s. In 1870 the first railroad reached the town of
Ellenville. Funds for its construction were provided by town bonds
issued to the amount of $259,000. This burden, added to the issue of
Civil War bonds, then unpaid, had a blighting effect upon the town’s
property values and no doubt retarded for a period the town’s growth
materially, as the burden of taxation became heaviest at the period of
trade transition which followed the decline of the tanning industry for
want of bark, and the loss of the iron industry owing to the development
of the great iron and coal regions of Pennsylvania and Michigan.

By 1880 the great industries which had made the town of Wawarsing
a populous and growing community had gone out of existence within its
borders, or retained but a fitful and unprofitable life and soon expired.
With their decline the name and fame of Ellenville and Napanoch became
almost lost for a period in the markets of the country and the world, and
within the town many homes were abandoned to ruin and many acres of
improved lands returned to the wilderness. Of the old industries there
remains only the Russell Tobacco Knife Works at Napanoch.

WAWARSING AT PRESENT.

For a period of several years, up to the beginning of the Twentieth
Century, Wawarsing lost in population, business and capital. Its enter-
prising citizens were not lacking either in spirit or effort to meet the new
conditions surrounding them. Many efforts were made by individuals,
and through co-operation, to start new industries. Among these, the
making of pocket cutlery was undertaken at Ellenville in 1874, through
a co-operative organization. The venture was not successful and the
factory passed from one management to another until it became the prop-
erty of Dwight Divine, who now conducts the works under the name of
the Ulster Knife Company. It is now a large and prosperous concern,
employing the largest number of employees of any single concern in the
town. The Ulster Paint Works, at Ellenville, is also a large plant.

TOWN OF WA WARSING.

401

Napanoch, owing to its fine water power, is still in the lead as the largest
center of heavy manufacturing. Here are three paper mills, a tobacco
knife works, the Napanoch Knife Co., making pocket cutlery, and a mill
making ground wood pulp for use in the making of explosives and lino-
leum. The Honk Falls Power Co., at Honk Falls, of 2,000 H. P. capacity,
is one of the finest plants in the line of electrical construction in the
country and noted for its efficiency and economy. It supplies electric
current for lighting Ellenville and Kingston, as well as to several small
villages and many homes within an area of thirty miles distant. Agricul-
ture has attained a more important development in the town of late years,
due in a measure to the successful management of the Ulster County
Agricultural Society, the annual meetings of which have been held at
Ellenville for many years. Several local dairies have a State reputation
for the high class of stock and product. Fruit culture is also making
headway as a profitable industry. The abandonment of the Delaware
and Hudson Canal in 1902 was a serious blow to Wawarsing interests.
The loss was met in a measure by the early construction and extension of
the Ellenville branch of the Ontario and Western Railroad to Kingston,
and the inauguration of a most liberal management and service by that
corporation, which has greatly enhanced the summer hotel and boarding
business of the town. The near proximity of the great and growing city
of New York is now Wawarsing’s greatest asset. This influence has of
late advanced real estate values, built many summer homes and devel-
oped several most beautiful estates in the hands of new and wealthy resi-
dents.

A large Hebrew population has, since 1903, settled in Wawarsing,
mostly in the Western part of the town, and this accession promises to be
an important factor, in the future of the town’s growth. They have pur-
chased many farms and are conducting many large boarding houses for
summer guests. The large summer hotels at Minnewaska, Mr. Meenaga
and Lackawack have high reputations throughout the country as popular
resorts. A large sanitarium for invalids is located on the west slope of
the Shawangunk mountain, near Kerhonkson. The population of Wa-
warsing in 1905 was 7,215, showing a loss of nearly 1,000 in twenty-five
years. Ellenville (incorporated) is the leading village, with 2,872 inhabi-
tants, two banks, the First National and the Home National, the latter
established in 1873, also the Ellenville Savings Bank, established in

402

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

1869. It has Reformed, Methodist, Episcopal, Lutheran', German and
English Catholic churches. Its public schools have a State reputation for
their excellence, and its fire department in efficiency and morale is equal to
any in the State. Its water system, owned by the municipality, was
erected in 1871. The water is most excellent, owing to its purity. The
village is situated amid picturesque surroundings, with wide, well kept
streets, lighted with electricity and finely shaded, with flagged sidewalks,
and its local government is efficient and popular. The two local papers,
the Journal, established in 1849, the Press, established in 1870, are
well conducted and are successful local news purveyors. Flourishing fra-
ternal lodges of Masons, Odd Fellows, Red Men, and Knights of Pythias
center at Ellenville, and lodges of the Junior Order of United American
Mechanics are at Ellenville, Napanoch and Kerhonkson. Napanoch has
a population of 683, with Methodist and Reformed churches. Wawarsing
has 240, with a Free Chapel, and Kerhonkson has 546, with Reformed and
Methodist churches. The post offices of the town are Cragsmore, Spring
Glen, Ellenville, Greenfield, Dairyland, Ulster Heights, Montela, Lacka-
wack, Wawarsing and Kerhonkson. During the summer a post office is
maintained at Minnewaska. There is a Baptist church at Lackawack,
Methodist churches at Montela and Ulster Heights, also a German Cath-
olic church at the latter place. The New York City Catskill water supply
project, which includes the valley of the Rondout river above Honk Falls,
will obliterate the neighborhood above Honk Falls to Montela and destroy
the water power at Napanoch when the work is completed. This work
will have a disastrous effect upon the industries of the town. The influ-
ence which is adding growth and prosperity to Wawarsing to-day is its
proximity to New York City, of which it will be merely a suburb when
the Hudson river tunnels are completed and electric power is applied to
railroad trains. Then Wawarsing, without a rival in its attractions within
the area of its distance from that great city, will become a growing and
prosperous community to a degree unknown in the past.

John C. Hoornbeek.

TOWN OF WOODSTOCK.

403

CHAPTER XXXIV.

TOWN OF WOODSTOCK
By Howard Hendricks.

This is one of the interior towns of Ulster County, and it is
located on the northern boundary adjoining the county of Greene.
The towns of Saugerties and Kingston are on the east, those of
Hurley and Olive on the south, and the town of Shandaken on the west.
It now covers an area of about 37,085 acres, of which nearly one-half is
under some form of cultivation. The balance consists of mountainous
woodland, forest slopes and quarries.

While the general aspect of the town is unfavorable to easy cultiva-
tion, there are many fertile valleys and some fine uplands where fine
fruit and other farm crops are successfully grown. The soil and loca-
tion seem well adapted to the growth of fine flavored apples which are
produced to a profitable extent. The general altitude of the farming
section is about 600 feet above the Hudson. But the northern part con-
sists of high mountains rising abruptly from the base to the height of
3,150 feet above tide, as in the case of Overlook Mountain, one of the
eastern sentinels of the Catskills. Not far below this summit is Echo
Lake, or Shues Lake, as it is often called, and at a lower elevation near
the center of the town is Cooper’s Lake, which covers about eighty acres.
The principal streams are the Beaverkill, Sawkill, and the Mink Hollow
brook. These with their numerous tributaries furnish valuable water
power and some fine trout-fishing.

The region was settled just previous to the Revolution. Philip Bone-
steel, the first settler of record, came in 1770 and made his ‘‘clearing’'
about one mile below the present Woodstock village, on what is known as
the old Hudler farm. He was followed six years later by Edward Short,
who located in the region since known as “Yankeetown.” Next came
Peter Short, in 1784, and four years later, Jacob DuBois, Ephriam Van
Keuren and Philip Shultis. Among other early settlers were Bement
Lewis, Henry Shultis, John Hutchins, William Elting, Matthew Keip,.

404

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

Peter Vandebogart, Johannes Kipp, Peter Van Benschoten, Peter Harder
and Jeremiah Reynolds.

Jacob Montross seems to have built the first grist-mill of which there
are now two or three others in the town. Among these are the old
Disch Mill, near Woodstock village, and the Shufelt Mills at Zena. All
these mills get their power from the Sawkill stream. There are also
many steam saw-mills in the town, which are operated certain seasons of
the year.

Tavern-keeping seems to have been a profitable occupation in the early
history of Woodstock, judging from the large number of licenses
granted. In fact, it was the pioneer industry, because Philip Bonesteel
got his license in 1789, and the following persons were licensed in the
same year ; the fee then being 8 shillings. Stephen Kierce, George Ellwyn,
Richard Peck, John Tuttle, Julius Edgar, Martinus Lori way, Gilbert
Decker, Robert More, William Goss and John Van Loan. During the
rnext decade there were a host of other tavern-keepers licensed. As to the
other important industries of that period which contributed toward the
^support of these numerous hotels, the record is far less complete. Dr.
Stephen L. Heath seems to have been among the earlier physicians of the
town.

Nineteen days after the inauguration of George Washington as the
first President of the United States, on April ii, 1787, Woodstock was
incorporated as a town. The territory had previously been included in
the old town of Hurley, and consisted of the settlements known as Great
and Little Shandaken. The fact that the name Woodstock originally
covered a wide territory is shown by the statement that ten years after
its formation a part was taken off in the formation of the town of Mid-
dletown, Delaware County, and in 1798 another portion was annexed
to Windham in Greene County, and in 1804 nearly all of the present town
of Shandaken was taken from Woodstock. Then in 1853 the southern
town lines were again changed, by which parts of Hurley and Olive were
added, and another bit of Woodstock went over to Olive. And finally
in 1879, a small part of the historic old town of Kingston, on the north,
was annexed to Woodstock.

The first town election was held the first Tuesday in June, 1787, at the
house of Elias Hasbrouck, who was then chosen the first Supervisor. He
was succeeded by John Van Gaasbeck, Jr., 1792-98; Wilhelmus Rowe,

TOWN OF WOODSTOCK.

405

1799-1802; Benjamin Olmstead, 1803-05; Cornelius Dumond, 1806-07;
John Wigram, 1808-09; Isaac Elting, 1810-22; Daniel Elliot, 1823-26;
Henry P. Shultis, 1827-29; Samuel Culver, 1830-37; Andrew A. New-
kirk, 7.838-41; Henry P. Shultis, 1842-44; Herman Reynolds, 1845-47;
Andrew A. Newkirk, 1848; John H. Lockwood, 1849; Peter Reynolds,
1850; William M. Cooper, 1851, 1865, 1867, 1870; Peter Reynolds, 1852,
1862-64; Joseph Miller, 1855; Cornelius, Risely, 1856-57; Herman Rey-
nolds, 1858-59; William Johnson, 1860-61; Albert H. Vosburgh, 1866,
1867, 1 881 -85, Edward B. Harder, 1868; Orson Vandevoort, 1871 ; Edward
B. Harder, 1872-73; Mark C. Risely, 1874; William H. Reynolds, 1875,
1878; Alex H. El win, 1876; William F. Cooper, 1877, 1886-88, 1890-92;
Isaac W. Mosher, 1879; Lyman B. Smith, 1880; Alfred Reynolds, 1889;
Vactor Shultis, 1893, 1894, 1904-06; Henry P. Vanderbogart, 1895-1899;
Christian W. Winne, 1900, 01-02-03.

The only village of importance in the town is Woodstock, in the
southeastern part, about twelve miles from Kingston. The location is
invested with rare scenic charm ; nestled there at the base of the gigantic
Overlook Mountain crag which forms a towering background for the tall
church spires, and the neatly painted stores, shops and dwellings. There
is a good hotel, a post-office, telegraph office, two general stores and many
shops and comfortable dwelling houses. In the summer season many of
these houses entertain city boarders at moderate prices, and they are
charmed with the rural environment and the healthful surroundings.

There are nine churches in the town, the oldest of which is the Re-
formed Church which was incorporated in 1805. The present church
edifice was erected in 1842. There are two Lutheran churches, the older
dating back to 1806, and the other 1878. The first Methodist church was
incorporated in 1835, the society having been formed seven years earlier
with twenty members. The first church was built in 1833. The second
Baptist church is next in order of date, starting in 1844. Ten years later
the first Wesleyan Methodist church began with 23 members, an offshoot
from the parent Methodist church. Then in 1856 came the second Meth-
odist church, and in 1870 still another Methodist church in the hamlet
known as Bristol. Three years later the South Woodstock Methodist
church was organized.

There are seven post-offices in the town known as Woodstock, Bears-
ville. Lake Hill, Zena, Willow, Shady and Wittenberg.

4o6

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

The hamlet known as Bristol was the site of the old glass factory
which ceased operations about fifty years ago. From this factory at that
time there was a turnpike-road built to the Hudson at Glasco which
seems in some way to have derived its name from this mountain glass
factory. Lake Hill is another hamlet with a Baptist church and a few
dwellings. It was the site of the noted Cooper’s Hotel.

Under the early school laws commissioners were chosen annually to
manage the schools. William B. Rogers, John Van Gaasbeck, Jr. Stephen
Simmons and Justice Squire being the first commissioners in 1797. In the
early part of the last century the records do not show any important
official action of the town authorities in respect to local educational affairs.
Under the new school act in 1813, the management became vested in in-
spectors and commissioners who were elected annually. This continued
until 1844 when the system of superintendents was begun. Then in 1856
the present plan of district commissioners was inaugurated, and the
schools were no longer under town control.

The principal cemetery is at Woodstock village, and it is nicely kept.
There are many ante-revolutionary monuments and an interesting mound
known as the “Elm-Tree Grave.” In connection with this there is an
interesting tradition regarding a sad incident of domestic infelicity with
tragic features, in which Dame Nature seems to have taken an important
role in the final act, and left an indelible mark upon the scene. Many
of the older Woodstock residents will give these details more fully than
they could be presented here.

The records show that some ninety or more citizens of the town of
Woodstock served in the Civil War, many of whom lost their lives on
the battlefield, and others as a result of this service for their country.

The famous Overlook Mountain, before alluded to, is of course the
great native attraction of this old town. The scenic beauties of this
massive mountain crag overshadow and dominate every other feature of
Woodstock. From this airy crest, 3,150 feet toward the sky, it must
have been that “Leatherstocking” that most original and eloquent char-
acter in all fiction, whom Carlyle characterized as “the one melodious
synopsis of man and nature,” stood when he said he saw “all creation,
and looked at the ways of men, and upon all that God had done or man
can do.” Parts of seven different States can be seen on a clear day from
this summit, with some seventy miles of the Hudson which shimmers

TOWN OF WOODSTOCK.

407

in the sunshine like a silver ribbon. This vast mountain crag is always
a gigantic background of beauty to Woodstock, no matter from what
point it is seen. For many years a large summer hotel near its summit,
so plainly seen from the Hudson, known as the Overlook Mountain House,
was a famous summer resort with tourists. The first hotel there was
built in 1870, and opened by John E. Lasher in 1871. It was much
larger than the present structure, and was run by Lasher until 1873 when,
in the winter of that year, it burned down, and for three years the prop-
erty stood vacant. At length it was purchased by the Kiersted brothers
who built the present hotel in 1876-77. It was then managed by Col.
Smith for four years, who was succeeded by C. K. Haskell and others,
and finally closed a few years ago for lack of profitable patronage, be-
cause of the long stage ride to reach it, and the opening of other mountain
hotels nearer the railway. During the past year the property has passed
into new hands and the house was partly opened this season, with a
promise of greater development next year. With improved means of
access this Overlook Mountain resort is sure to become one of the most
famous and popular in the Catskills.

George Mead was the pioneer landlord of this mountain. In June,
1863, he began to build his hotel half way up the slope, where it now
stands. The place was then a dense wilderness and a woodsman had
built a small rude shanty in the clearing. Mr. Mead bought up his claim
and began to entertain a few visitors in the fall of 1863. Christopher
Agar and H. B. Schoonmaker are the first names on his old register,
which now contains a long list of names of eminent men and women
of fame and importance. There was then only an old Indian trail from
his hotel to the Overlook crest. In 1869 Mr. Mead raised money from
some Kingston business men and built the first wagon road up that very
steep slope. This road was afterward improved by the hotel company and
was well kept for some years at considerable expense. The Mead hotel
was the first mountain house built south of the Kaaterskill Clove. It has
since been much enlarged and is now in charge of W. S. Mead, the son.

The Overlook House is about 500 feet higher than any other hotel in
the State, and the air is always cooler than any other point in the Catskills.

The public roads of Woodstock have been materially improved during
recent years. The main thoroughfare to Saugerties has been rebuilt

4o8

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

with the assistance of the State, and the road to West Hurley has been
greatly improved.

The great Woodstock watershed, which is now furnishing water for the
city of Kingston, was first brought into requisition in 1883. The water
is gathered into three large reservoirs and conveyed to the city by
gravity in a double line of mains. It is of exceptional purity. The main
streams are the Sawkill and the Mink Hollow. The former begins at
Echo Lake not far below the Overlook summit on the northwesterly
slope. This watershed covers an area of about 35 square miles, and there
is a storage capacity in the three reservoirs in the town of 305,000,000
gallons. The mechanical filtering plant has a daily capacity of over
6,000,000 gallons.

The Bluestone industry is also carried on to a considerable extent in
Woodstock, although the work here is confined to the quarrying, and
carting the stone to market. There is an abundance of stone, and nu-
merous quarries have been opened on the lower mountain slopes and hills.
Some fine large platforms and other varieties of flag are secured. Most
of this stone is drawn to the river at Glasco, Saugerties or Malden and
sold to the Hudson River Bluestone Company, or to James Maxwell’s
Sons, who are now the only buyers and manufacturers in this vicinity.
In fact, it may be said that the Hudson River Company practically con-
trols the bluestone industry and output in Ulster County at the present
time.

^^Byrdcliffe” is the name applied to an important artist colony settle-
ment on the mountain slope north of Woodstock village at an elevation
of about 1,500 feet above tide. It was established by Mr. Whitehead, an
English colonist, a few years ago, and it now contains some 25 or more
cottages and buildings of different kinds upon which much money has
been spent. The grading and construction of roads has also been done at
large cost. The place has been made attractive to artists endowed with
artistic tastes and inclinations, and the colony has many summer visitors.
A summer class of from twenty to thirty students has worked there in
what is known as the New York Art School, and much talent is being
developed. It is said that over half a million dollars has been expended
in the establishment of this colony and the subsequent improvements.

THE REFORMED PROTESTANT (DUTCH) CHURCH. 409

CHAPTER XXXV.

THE REFORMED PROTESTANT (DUTCH) CHURCH.

By Rev. John Garnsey Van Slyke, D.D.

The Reformed Church in America/’ commonly known as “Dutch,”
like every other type of ecclesiastical life in our country, is an
exotic. Its beginnings in Ulster County were due to seeds
brought hither from the Netherland. In that ancient “Hollow-land,” the
doctrines of the Reformation early found a peculiarly congenial and
nutritious soil. That same vigorous type of character which has been
emblazoned in the annals of patriotism, found equal illustration in the
religious life of our Dutch ancestors. The principles of an emancipated
Gospel were incorporated in their bone and sinew, and found ardent and
unequivocal assertion in their theological dogmas.

But while we glory in our Dutch ancestry, we are not unmindful of the
multitudinous strains of that French Huguenot blood which were trans-
fused into the veins of our progenitors. This blend of the characteristic
qualities of the vivacious Gallic race with the more plodding Batavians,
issued in a product which united the better elements of both. And in the
fact that the Dutch provinces offered asylum from the persecutions
of neighboring realms, where the benignant air of toleration en-
couraged the growths of a pure religion, there was imparted a liberal
breadth and kindly sympathy which allowed the diversities of faith. A
freedom from tolerance and narrowness has been a constant aspect of
people of Dutch stock. While they have not been indifferent in main-
taining a purity of creed, no bigotry nor zealotry have incited them to
brandish the sword of persecution.

From a people incorporating such distinguishing elements, the Dutch
Church of Ulster County traces its direct sources. From the time of its
transplanting two and a half centuries ago, it has preserved the birth-
marks which avouch its noble parentage.

The Dutchman under alien skies reproduced precisely the type of doc-
trine and modes of ecclesiastical government which had prevailed in

410

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

Holland. It is suggestive that it was not until the year 1800, that the
Colonists or their children would consent to abandon the use of the Dutch
language in public worship.

These facts predetermine the phases of our history as a denomination in
this county. They imposed on our expansion some limitations which de-
layed our thorough Americanization, and were the occasion for the up-
springing of diverse churches which declined to be assimilated with a
body which so long remained essentially foreign. This foreign adhesion
is illustrated in the case of the old mother-church in Kingston which re-
fused to sunder its ecclesiastical relation with the Classis of Amsterdam
until near the beginning of the nineteenth century. But notwithstanding
this perpetuation of an old world type, it was the Dutch Church which,
in a human way, created the spiritual climate and fructified the soil, which
has enabled churches of different orders to spring and flourish about us.
Their vitality is the transferred legacy and endowment of such Christian
forces as have issued out of the loins of the church which we still fondly
call ^‘Dutch.’’

The moulding of the moral history of Ulster County is to be largely
credited to influences and impulses which had their birth in the old Dutch
Church of Kingston, and which incited the various ecclesiastical activities
of our present time. The earliest crystallization of the religious instincts
of our fathers culminating in the formation of a church in Kingston — then
called Wiltwyck, and afterward Esopus, is overhung with a mist of
obscurity. The earliest annals recite that on the 29th day of May, 1658,
and the day following, being "‘Ascension Day,” “the people having no
church edifice, assembled at the house of Jacob Jansen Stoll, to keep the
festival.” They appear to have had at this time no minister in full orders,
but were served by a schoolmaster, who was appointed as a “Voorleser,”
i. e., whose office virtually corresponded with that of a Curate in the
Church of England, whose duty it was to act as a lay reader, and catechise
the children and instill the elements of Christian faith.

Tradition has named the first appointee to this office, one Andrus
van der Sluys. The name of Andries Jacobus van Slyke, has also been
named by one authority as this person. From exact similarity of meaning,
t. e., a sluice-way, the one name may have been substituted for the other.
This Voorleser was appointed by the Colonial Governor Petrus Stuy-
vesant. That his appointment was justified is seen by the fact that a spirit

THE REFORMED PROTESTANT (DUTCH) CHURCH. 411

was developed under his curacy which took shape in a definite church
organization, according to the polity of the mother country, which was
predominantly Presbyterian. In August, 1659, this newly-formed church
invited Hermanns Blom from Holland, to become its pastor. They prom-
ised to provide Dominie Blom with a good farm or bowerie, house and
barn, cows and oxen, and pay him 700 guilders, i. e., $280, at beaver valu-
ation, to commence from the 5th of September, in 1660. Entering on his
ministerial duties, he made the first record, in the first volume of the
books of the church, as follows :

“I, Hermanus Blom, the first preacher in the land of Esopus, preached my first
sermon on the 12th day of September, 1660, having arrived there on the 5th day of
the month in the Company’s yacht.”

The Reverend Blom was born in Amsterdam in 1628, and graduated
from Leyden University in Theology in 1652. After seven years service
in Esopus, he returned to Holland. His original commission reads, he
was “ordained to preach on water and on the land and in all the neigh-
borhood, but especially at Esopus.” He appears to have been a man of
superior parts, under whose pastorate the young Church rapidly devel-
oped. The Dominie being a virtual autocrat, largely shaped by his per-
sonal force as well as his official character, the opinions and life of the
nascent community. It must have been an idyllic state of things when a
true and faithful servant of God could thus dominate the entire population.

The first Church edifice was constructed of logs, in 1661, on ground
now occupied by a barn of the late Augustus H. Bruyn. This first rude
building was, two or three years later, replaced by a commodious stone
structure on the southeast corner of the present Church-yard. This, later,
became a point toward which the scattered inhabitants of outlying districts
as far away as New Paltz, Stone Ridge, Woodstock, and Saugerties con-
verged Sunday by Sunday. Space forbids a recital of the quiet growth
which advanced until the Revolutionary period; for several generations
the history of religious life in Ulster County coincided mainly with the
history of the Church now commonly designated as “The First Dutch.”
The imposing Charter of this Church, written, on a large sheet of parch-
ment, was issued by the English Government, under whose care the young
colony had passed, and bears the date of Nov 17, 1719.

The several Churches of the Reformed order which sprang up in the
adjacent parts of the County, were all progeny of the mother in Kings-
ton, and some were directly due to her incubating influence. The

412

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

history of any particular Church in this contribution to the story o£
Ulster County, from the nature of the case, as well as the limitations of
space, can consist of little more than superficial annals and statistics. Back
of these are impalpable spiritual elements which distinguish a true Church
of God from various human organizations, and which are beyond the
compass of narration.

In chronological order, the first Church springing from the loins of the
mother Church, was the Reformed Church of New Paltz. The Hugue-
not Refugees from France and the Palatinate who had found among
the Dutch in Kingston, welcome and hospitality, withdrew in a body to
the fertile and beautiful valley of the Wallkill, and directly organized
a Church where they might worship in their native French tongue.
Under the moulding hand of the Rev. Pierre Daillie, its formal life
began in 1683, since which time its uninterrupted life has grown into noble
proportions. For a number of years, it stood apart by itself without
ecclesiastical relation to the Denomination in this country. In 1772, it
became affiliated with the general body of the Reformed Church. Until
this date, its people had refused to take sides in a schism which
unhappily divided the entire Dutch Church, and which is known as the
Coetus and Conferentiae controversy. The point at issue was the question
whether the Church should find its ministry in our native soil, for which
the Coetus party contended, or whether they should be drawn only from
the schools of the Netherland, as the Conferentiae faction resolutely con-
tended. The sharpness of the controversy laid an arresting blight on the
expansion of the Church, nowhere more unhappily than in Ulster County,
and neutralized to a material extent the advantages of prior occupancy,
while it afforded opportunity to other ecclesiastical bodies to press in and
possess the land. Moreover, the tenacity with which the Dutch congre-
gations clung to the use of their original language, long after the English
tongue prevailed as the vernacular in social and business life, operated as
a limitation on expansion.

The Americanization of the Church has long since effaced almost the
recollection of these phases of an earlier life. In no Church of the County
have the surviving spirit and vigor found more conspicuous illustration
than in the well-equipped and influential Church of New Paltz.

The next Church to crystallize in an organization in 1701, was that at
Accord, in the town of Rochester — coinciding with the beginning of the

THE REFORMED PROTESTANT (DUTCH) CHURCH. 413

life of the community itself. It shared for several years, the fostering care
<of the Revs. Petrus Vas and G. W, Mancius of Kingston. The certificate
of incorporation of this Church was executed in 1788. After enjoying
the intermittent services of occasional supplies of its pulpit by Theodorus
Frelinghuysen, Schureman, and others, in 1766, the notable Dirick
Romeyn was ordained, and as Pastor, took charge of the three Churches
of Rochester, Marbletown and Wawarsing. He has been described as
“unquestionably the first man in our Church in his day, and among the
first in the entire American Church.^’ This particular Church appears to
have bred men of exceptional power, among whom may be named
Martinus Schoonmaker, and Henricus, his brother, Cornelius D. West-
brook, John Hardenbergh and James B. Hardenbergh.

What is now known as the Reformed Church of Saugerties is, so far
as the ecclesiastical organization is concerned, identical with the old
Church of Katsbaan. The first house of worship was built in 1732 on
the beautiful hill where the present Church of Katsbaan now stands. The
early records of the Church yield little matter for history. The twin
Church of Saugerties was separated from Katsbaan in 1839.

The life of the Church of Marbletown, now known as Stone Ridge,
dates from the year 1737. North Marbletown was organized in 1851, and
was an offshoot of Stone Ridge.

Another Church which dates from the Eighteenth century is that at
the place described as Klein Esopus, organized in 1791, and incorporated
in 1793. The picturesque old brick edifice crowning a hill at Ulster Park
remains a center of hallowing influence.

The Reformed Church of North Esopus at Port Ewen, an offshoot
from Klein Esopus, was organized in 1851, since which time it has steadily
grown in membership and usefulness.

Another Reformed Church which also dates from the Eighteenth
century is that of Bloomingdale, which took definite shape in 1796.

Very nearly coinciding in their antiquity are the Churches of Shokan,
organized in 1791, and Woodstock, in 1799.

The first to decorate the beginning of the Nineteenth century was the
Church of old Hurley, which began its independent existence in 1801.

The earlier half of the Nineteenth century was the fecund age of the
Dutch Church in Ulster. A wave of fervor and zeal manifested itself
at widely separated points. This was expressed at Roxbury in 1802, in

414

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

the Church which has recently been reconstituted as the Jay Gould
Memorial Church. Next following in 1807, the Church of Flatbush was
started. The Reformed Church of the Clove (High Falls) also dates
from 1807. Dashville Falls was originated in 1831. The Church of Guil-
ford crystallized in an independent organization in 1833. Next in order
of time were Plattekill in 1838 and the village Church of Saugerties in
1839. Mountain emerged into history in 1851 in the same year, as

stated above, with Port Ewen and North Marbletown. Shandaken Church
took form in 1854. Next following the Churches named came the organi-
zation of the Church at Rosendale in 1843; branch Church at the
Plains assumed shape in 1897. West Hurley followed Rosendale in 1848.

The vital and prosperous Fair Street Reformed Church of Kingston, a
swarm from the over-crowded hive of the First Dutch, was formed in
1849. Mountain began simultaneously with the Churches of Port

Ewen and Krumville and North Marbletown in 1851. In 1864, St. Remy
was constituted an independent Church, though under the care of a neigh-
boring Pastor.

The Church of the Comforter in Kingston, frequently called the Church
of Wiltwyck, owes its origin, in 1863, to the generous enterprise of a
single Christian family, whose large benificence has since been amply
justified. In 1876, the Church of Lyonsville was born; in 1891, that of
Gardiner; and in 1898, that at Brown’s Station, whose expressive name is
“Church of the Faithful.” By the proposed reservoir of New York this
last is destined to be effaced.

The Churches thus far enumerated are confederate in two groups,
known as the Classis of Ulster and that of Kingston.

The Classis is the unit of ecclesiastical power in the Reformed Church,
and has supreme control in the government and supervision of individual
Churches and iii the settlement and removal of ministers. It holds two
regular sessions each year in the various Churches in rotation, at which
reports of the individual Churches are rendered, as well as such special
sessions as occasion may require. It is constituted by a Minister and one
Elder from each Church.

Other Churches lying outside the jurisdiction of the two Classis of
Ulster and Kingston, though within the bounds of Ulster County, are
those of Shawangunk, whose organization is uncertainly placed by some
as early as 1737; and that of New Prospect, constituted in 1815.

THE REFORMED PROTESTANT (DUTCH) CHURCH. 415

The Wallkill Valley Church was incorporated in 1869; New Hurley in
1770; Plattekill in 1839; Ellenville in 1840; Wawarsing, at Napanoch, in
1845. These Churches in their respective localities continue to yield
gratifying evidence of abounding vitality while illustrating a wide-spread
leavening influence.

The mere dates and annals to which this sketch confines us, while
exhibiting the external chronicles of the Reformed Churches which have
sprung up within the bounds of the County of Ulster, are manifestly
incompetent to unfold all the lore of history of which they are the external
exponents. They avouch a high measure of spiritual devotion and earnest-
ness; and the usefulness and prosperity which have accompanied their
growth attest the sanction and favor of Heaven. As qualified by human
conditions, some of them, very few indeed, have suffered impoverishment
and decline, from changes in secular fortune which have befallen them ;
but the greater number remain in abounding usefulness and expanding
power, as citadels of the Kingdom of God in this Coimty.

4i6

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

CHAPTER XXXVI.

THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH.

By Monsignor^ the Very Reverend Richard Lalor Burtsell, D.D.

WHILE the Dutch were following up their discovery of the Hudson
River by their settlement of Esopus and Fort Orange, the Jesuits
were extending their labors among the Indians inhabiting the
present State of New York. The first missionary who entered about 1642
within the borders of the State, Father Jogues accompanied by a party of
Hurons, was taken captive by the Iroquois or Mohawks. Though beaten
with clubs and stones, his finger nails pulled, the index finger of both hands
gnawed, the thumb of his right hand cut off by an Algonquin woman — a
Christian — at the command of her Iroquois master, yet as soon as he had
the chance, he instructed such Indians as he found disposed, in the mys-
teries of the Christian faith, and baptized dying children. He afterwards
made his escape by the assistance of Arendt Van Curler, who had pre-
viously made several attempts in his favor. The Dutch protected him
even at the risk of war, and paid the Indians one hundred pieces of gold
for his ransom. The minister of Fort Orange, John Megalopensis, took a
great interest in him. Sailing down the Hudson, they certainly touched
at Ronduit — the redoubt to protect Esopus or Wiltwyck. Governor Kieft
and the inhabitants of New Amsterdam received him with great kind-
ness; the Governor provided him with a passage to Holland. In New
Amsterdam, Father Jogues found only two Catholics, a Portuguese
woman and an Irishman. Governor Dongan was directed by the Duke
of York, to detach the Five Nations from the French, who had gained
great influence through the zealous labors of the missionaries. To coun-
teract this a Jesuit mission was established in New York, and the purpose
was to form at Saratoga a Catholic village of Iroquois Indians under
English influence. Fathers Harvey, Harrison and Gage actually started
in New York a college, of which Jacob Leisler, a later fanatical usurper
of the government, wrote to the Governor of Boston in August, 1689:

THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH.

417

‘T have formerly urged to inform your Honr. that Coll. Dongan in this
time did direct a Jesuit colledge upon collour to learn Latine to the
judges West, Mr. Graham, Judge Palmer and John Indor did contribute
their sones for some time but no boddy initating them, the colledge van-
ished.”

We read in the Records and studies, U. S. Cath. Histor. Society, Jan.
1899, Vol. I, p. 35, that from 1683 to 1690 “Fathers Harrison, Harvey and
Gage, Jesuit ministers to the Catholics scattered through New York and
New Jersey and traces of their ministrations are found from Esopus in
Ulster County to Staten Island.” Father A. E. Jones, S. J., in Griffin's
Amer. Cath Historical Researches, Vol. XXL, Jan., 1904, tells of a
Jesuit Father Francois Vaillant de Guesilis who on December 31st, 1682,
was sent from Canada to plead for peace with Gov. Dongan, but was
back in Montreal by the end of February following. Griffin in Amer.
Cath. Hist. Researches, Jan., 1901, p. 12, says that this “Father Vaillant
was at Cutaracony (Kingston, N. Y.) in the year 1688, escorted by two
Indians who were sent by Gov. Dongan to prevent him from having any
intercourse with the Mohawks, his former flock.”

We have a curious item mentioned in Doc. Hist. N. Y., Vol. XL, p. 205 :
“Some articles of value which heretofore belonged to the Canadian Jesuit,
Valiand of Canada” 12 little patrenoster chains (rosaries) i priest’s white
surplice. Leisler writing to Governor of Boston, 7th April, 1690, wrote :
“In searching Livingstone’s house we found a case belonging to a French
Jesuit of Canada and some Indian Categisms and the lesson to learn to
make their God before they ate him, with crucifix.”

In 1673 the enactment of the last of the Dutch Governors, reviving
the Stuyvesant system, directed the local magistrates “to take care that
the Reformed Christian religion be maintained in conformity to the Synod
of Dordrecht, without permitting any other sects attempting anything
contrary thereto.” The Catholic English Governor Col. Dongan in 1683,
had passed in the first legislative Assembly in New York the Bill of Rights
which declared that “No person or persons which profess faith in God by
Jesus Christ shall at any time be anyways molested, punished, disquieted
or called in question for any difference of opinion or matter of religious
concernment, who do not actually disturb the civil peace of the province.”

This was in accord with the instructions of James, Duke of York in
1679 to Governor Andros. Marius Schoonmaker, the historian of Kings-

4i8

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

ton, goes out of his way to apologize for the revocation of this liberal
spirit and the intolerance of Governor Bellmont under King William in
1700 when he sanctioned the law requiring Jesuits and Popish priests to
leave the province by the ist of November following under penalty of
perpetual imprisonment. This Bellmont was the son of a Colonel Coote
whose butcheries of Catholics in Ireland stand out horribly even on the
records of that unhappy island. The preamble of the law is a tissue of
lies: Whereas divers Jesuits, Priests and Popish Missionaries have of
late come and for some time have had their residence in the remote parts
of this province and others of his Majesty’s adjacent colonies, who by
their wicked and subtle insinuations industriously labour to debauch,
seduce and withdraw the Indians from their due obedience to His most
sacred Majesty, and to excite them up to sedition, rebellion and open
hostility to His Majesty’s government.”

The law enacted that every priest remaining in the province after the
passage of the law, or coming in after November, 1700, should be
‘‘deemed and accounted an incendiary and disturber of the public peace
and safety, and an enemy of the Christian religion, and shall be adjudged
to suffer perpetual imprisonment. Any priest imprisoned under the
act who escaped from his dungeon was liable to the penalty of death if
retaken. Any one who harbored a Catholic priest was subject to a fine
of two hundred and fifty pounds, and was to stand on the pillory for
three days.” The next year a law passed by which “Papists and Popish
recusants were prohibited from voting for members of Assembly or any
office whatever from thenceforth and forever. The usual oaths against
Transubstantiation and of allegiance to the house of Hanover were taken
by the members of the Council and other officials. An effect of these
proscriptions was the hanging in New York of a Rev. John Ury in 1741
ostensibly on account of a pretended participation in the notorious negro
plot, but in reality on account of his being supposed to be a priest. The
few poor Catholics who lived there must have suffered many trials. A
man did not dare avow himself a Catholic, says Watson : “It was odious.”
It is pleasant to remember that Kingston is permanently connected with
the memory of the Constitution of New York of 1777 which “guaranteed
the free exercise and enjoyment of religious worship, not degenerating
with license inconsistent with the public peace” — though against the wishes
of some one who would exclude Catholics. John Jay’s influence prompted

THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH.

419

the giving to the Legislature “discretion to pass an act to naturalize
persons born out of the United States on condition of their abjuring all
foreign authority ecclesiastical as well as civil” — ^the ecclesiastical abjura-
tion being directed against Catholics. Congress, however, having re-
served to itself the power of making laws of naturalization, this clause
and the accompanying amendment became inoperative. By act of April,
1801, the clauses against transubstantiation and foreign ecclesiastical
allegiance, were inserted in the official oath. Such Catholics as were in
the city of New York in 1781-1782 heard mass in private houses. At
the time of its evacuation by the British troops in 1783 they began, per-
haps 200 in number, to assemble for the open celebration of the offices
of religion. A Jesuit, Father Farmer, whose real name was Steenmeyer,
was the first priest to officiate for them. He came on from Philadelphia
occasionally for that purpose. The law of 1700 in regard “to Popish
priests and Jesuits” was repealed by an express act of the Legislature
of New York in 1804. The Catholics must have increased rapidly for
to the petition got up by the Trustees of St. Peter’s Church in 1806 for the
abrogation of the obnoxious clauses of the official oath, there were 1,300
signatures, presumably of Catholics, as the wording of the petition would
indicate. The petition was granted by the Legislature of 1806.

These facts explain sufficiently why not many Catholics had settled in
New York during the century which elapsed from King William’s reign
and the triumph of American Independence. After this, however, there
was an increase in the number of Catholics, not a few of whom scattered
throughout the State. The needs of the greater number who remained
in New York City retained, to a great extent, the services of the few
priests whom they could obtain from abroad. Yet the priests would not
omit going in search of those scattered, but began to look them up, lest
they should be absolutely deprived of the ministrations of their faith;
hence came the title of “roving priests” given to these early pioneers of
the Catholic faith throughout New York.

The one first mentioned as likely to come in contact with Ulster County
is a . Father Arthur Langdill who was stationed in Newburgh by Bishop
Connelly from 1817 to 1818. In Bishop Connelly’s note book we find
these notes: “Oct. 22, 1817. I addressed a letter to Rev. Arthur Langdill
empowering him to celebrate mass, administer the sacraments and perform
all priestly duties that do not require the Episcopal character throughout

420

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

this diocese of New York (excepting the districts of New York and
Albany, unless with the consent of Clergy serving those two districts)
until further orders, or as long as I do not consider it necessary to recall
said powers.” “Jan. 29th, 1818 I answered the Rev. Arthur Langdill’s
three letters, and sent him said Indult (for the ensuing Lent), and ad-
dressed the letter to the care of Mr. MTntire, New Burg.” He after-
ward went to Paterson, New Jersey, while Father Philip Lariscy, who
had said the first mass in that city, was commissioned to look after the
missions on the Hudson in 1822. Father Lariscy was a priest of the
Augustinian Order and a man of abundant energy, zealous and untiring,
but somewhat rough and fierce. He talked Irish well and was in great
demand. He traveled over all New England. He built St. Augustine’s
Church in Boston. Under his direction a chapel was started in New
Bedford. He was a native of Cork, Ireland, and died at St. Augustine’s,
Philadelphia, in 1824, aged forty-two years.

A pleasing incident in connection with Ulster County may be recalled
in the decision given by De Witt Clinton, identified with Kingston in a
celebrated case, which was of much importance to the Catholic com-
munity. Restitution had been made to a man named James Keating
through the Rev. Father Kohlman. Keating had complained against
one Philips and his wife, as having received the goods thus stolen, and
as Keating testified that the goods had been restored to him through the
instrumentality of Father Kohlman, the priest was cited by the Magis-
trates to give evidence in regard to the person from whom he had
received them. This he refused to do on the ground that no court could
require a priest to give evidence in regard to matters known to him only
under the seal of the confessional. De Witt Clinton thus summed up his
decision : “We speak of this question not in a theological sense, but in its
legal and constitutional bearings. Although we differ from the witness
and his brethren in our religious creed, yet we have no reason to question
the purity of their motives, or to impeach their good conduct as citizens.
They are protected by the laws and constitution of this country, in the
full and free exercise of their religion, and this court can never coun-
tenance or authorize the application of insult to their faith or of torture
to their conscience.” The principle of this decision was afterward em-
bodied in a statute, through Clinton’s influence. “No minister of the
Gospel or priest of any denomination, shall be allowed to disclose any

THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH.

421

confessions made to him in his professional character, in the course of
discipline enjoined by the*rules or practice of such denomination.” Passed
as part of the Rev. Stat., December loth, 1828, and signed by N. Pitcher,
Lieut. Gov. : Governor Clinton having died in February of that year.

Saugerties was the first place in Ulster County where Catholics settled
in sufficient number to warrant the erection of a church. They were
mainly Irish enticed to the neighborhood by the expectation of employ-
ment in the iron works and paper mills and in the stone quarries which
brought into existence the thriving village of Saugerties. The first Cath-
olic priest who gave his services to them was the Rev. Philip O’Reilly
of the Order of St. Dominic. The first two Bishops of New York from
1808 to 1825 were of the same order. Born in Scabia, County Cavan,
Ireland, he was educated in Bologna, Italy. He probably came to New
York about 1818. In 1829 he was stationed at Utica, and his active mis-
sionary spirit prompted him to go in search of the scattered Catholics of
Otsego, Chenango and Schoharie Counties. In 1830 he was deputed by
the Bishop of the Diocese of New York (the Rt. Rev. John DuBois), to
form missions and build churches on the banks of the Hudson River
as far as his zeal would urge him. The diocese embraced all New York
and half of New Jersey. He first erected at Cold Spring, on the cliff over-
looking the Hudson River, the site being given by Gouverneur Kemble,
the romantic church of ‘^Our Lady” which Weir the painter portrayed,
dedicated by Bishop Dubois in September, 1834. Mr. Kemble had also
given generous contributions of money, for which he was denounced in
the newspapers “for abetting the idolatry of the mass.” Father O’Reilly
gave new proof of his energy by laying the corner-stone of a church at
Saugerties as early as 1833. He had visited Saugerties in 1832 where
he at once held religious services in various private dwellings, one Sunday
of each month. The welcome given him by the Catholic families is proved
by the fact that a church was speedily erected large enough for the num-
ber of people at the time. This, no less than the fame of the increasing
prosperity of the industries, attracted many more Catholics to Saugerties
until it was found necessary from time to time to make additions to the
church, and in fact its formal dedication took place in 1843, though it was
used in the preceding years for mass. The church has a commanding
position overlooking the village of Saugerties and the valley of the
Hudson, and the surrounding country for many miles. It is a handsome

422

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

and spacious edifice. Around it have been buried several generations of
Catholics in its beautiful cemetery.

The earnest zeal of Father O’Reilly is proved by his solicitude in behalf
of the Catholic people that began to gather at Rondout then at the be-
ginning of its development in consequence of the building of the Delaware
and Hudson Canal. On the 22nd of September, 1835, the few Catholics
of this hamlet held a meeting to express their anxiety to have a church ;
their first contribution was $32.02. It was not a very large sum, but their
efifort was followed by a visit of Father O’Reilly on November 30th,
1835, to sanction and encourage their laudable desire. Father O’Reilly
had also under his charge Newburgh and Poughkeepsie. In 1837 Father
O’Reilly was appointed Pastor of St. John’s Church in Paterson, New Jer-
sey, from whence he went in 1844 to Troy, New York, where he built the
fine Gothic Church of St. Patrick. In 1851 he was at St. Peter and Paul’s
Church in Williamsburgh giving aid to the Rev. Sylvester Malone, from
whence he went to St. Bridget’s Church to aid the Rev. Thomas Martin,
who like himself, was a member of the Order of St. Dominic. Worn out
with nearly 40 years of hard missionary work in the States of New York
and New Jersey, he died at St. Bridget’s on December 7th, 1854. The Rev.
S. Malone who died in December, 1899, pastor as he had been founder
of the Church of St. Peter and Paul in Williamsburgh, was most enthu-
siastic in his praise of the Rev. Philip O’Reilly, for his cleverness and
geniality and wit. Cardinal McCloskey used to relate that Father
O’Reilly had a great liking for military matters and would recite from
memory the whole history of Napier’s Peninsular War. He was a large
and powerfully built man of commanding presence, good family and
brilliant social qualities. Before he came to this country he is said to have
been Chaplain of the Duke of Norfolk. Father O’Reilly’s successor in
Saugerties was, in 1837, Patrick Duffy, who had already built a

church in Paterson, New Jersey, and became pastor of Cold Spring with
his missionary field extended to Newburgh, Poughkeepsie and Sauger-
ties. His first recorded administration of baptism in the Saugerties
Registry was on May 14th, 1837, and the baptized were James McDade,
Sarah Ann Fallon, Mary Ann Shields, William Walsh, Francis Reynolds,
Margaret Shea and Peter Branigan. Toward the end of this year New-
burgh was made the center of a separate mission, and the Rev. Patrick
Duffy was appointed its pastor. In Poughkeepsie during his brief ad-

THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH.

423

ministration St. Peter’s Church had been dedicated in November, 1837,
by Bishop Dubois, assisted by Rev. Wm. Quarter and Rev. Patrick Duffy.
In Newburgh Father Duffy did good work in the erection of a church and
school and the establishment of the cemetery. He died there after seven-
teen years of pastorate in 1853, in the 59th year of his age; his name
there is to this day held in benediction. On his appointment to New-
burgh, Poughkeepsie was made a separate parish with Saugerties and
Rondout as dependencies. The Rev. John McGinnis was in 1837 appointed
by Bishop DuBois “because he could rely upon his prudence and zeal, pas-
tor of Poughkeepsie, Saugerties and Rondout, with the instruction to dis-
tribute his services, if they concurred, to the best of their abilities for his
support, so that each should be attended at least once a month.” He was
in charge till the end of 1838. Being known for exceptional zeal and
ability, he was then called to New York City where the rapidly increasing
number of Catholic immigrants demanded the establishment of more
churches. There he built the church of St. John the Evangelist, and was
made pastor of St. Andrew’s, New York, and afterward of Jamaica,
Long Island, where he had hard missionary work. The Rev. John N.
Smith became pastor of Poughkeepsie, Saugerties and Rondout in 1839.
Born in County Tyrone, Ireland, he came to the United States in early
youth in 1818, and was ordained about 1828; from 1833 to 1837 he did
service in Alexandria, District of Columbia; he was assistant at St.
Peter’s, New York, in 1838, to the Rev. Dr. Power, V. G. He was an
energetic, brusque and charitable priest. Among other works he erected
a small frame church at Rondout. He was thoroughly devoted to his
calling and mention is made of his trips to Rosendale in search of stray
Catholics. He was active at Saugerties till 1842, when he was called to
St. James’ Church, New York, where he remained as pastor till 1848 in
February, when he died a martyr to charity, having contracted the ship
fever at the dying bed of the learned Father Mark Murphy, then at the
quarantine station of Staten Island, taking charge of the immigrants.
His successor as pastor of Poughkeepsie, Saugerties and Rondout in 1842
was the Rev. Myles Maxwell. Born in Ireland, educated for the priest-
hood at Lafargeville and St. Joseph’s Seminary, Fordham, ordained by
Bishop Hughes on January 5th, 1841, Father Maxwell was for a short
time assistant to the Rev. John Smith at St. James’, New York, and was
with him transferred to Poughkeepsie, succeeding him there as pastor.

424

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

Father Maxwell was noted for his zeal, learning and fidelity to duty, as
well as for his candor and winning simplicity. In 1845 Saugerties and
Rondout were made an independent parish. In May, 1847, the diocese
of Albany was established under the Episcopal charge of the Rt. Rev.
John McCloskey, and Saugerties became a part of this diocese, because
the line of division was fixed at the 42d degree north latitude, which falls
about midway between Saugerties and Kingston. At the division of the
diocese Father Maxwell, who had become in 1845 pastor of Saugerties
and Rondout, residing in Saugerties, remained attached to the diocese of
New York, and the care of Saugerties and Shandaken was, for more than
a year, assigned to the Rev. Michael Gilbride, pastor at Hudson, who
already had charge of Hunter, Middletown and Scienceville. This plen-
tiful work did not prevent him from giving due attention to Saugerties
and other places connected with it. The Catholic laborers, principally
quarrymen of Fish Creek, known also as Clove, were accustomed to go on
Sundays to Saugerties for mass, and not a few inconveniences and some-
times disorders ensued, and Mr. Russell, the owner of the quarries, offered
to Father Gilbride the ground for a church ; he gladly accepted the offer,
and erected St. John’s Church. Father Gilbride’s earlier missions had
brought him to Ellenville, where he was the first priest to officiate, in
1844. He died as pastor of Waterloo, New York, in 1854. In 1849 l^^e
Bishop of Albany appointed as pastor of Saugerties the Rev. John Gilli-
gan, who had charge till 1852. Under the Bishop of Albany the Rev.
Lawrence Consadine had charge of Shandaken from 1849 to 1852, but
had several other missions in different counties. In 1852 the care of
Shandaken passed into the hands of Rev. Eugene Carroll, though his
residence was in other counties. The Rev. Michael C. Power was in
1852 appointed by the Bishop of Albany, the Rt. Rev. John McCloskey,
to be pastor of Saugerties. Father Power, born in Cork, Ireland, had
been educated for the priesthood at the Irish college in Paris, and his
abilities and theological knowledge were conspicuous. He wielded a
strong influence and during his twenty-five years of pastorate from 1852
to 1878 his duties called him to every part of the town of Saugerties in
consequence of the great increase of Catholics who were attracted by the
prospects of work to the neighboring stone quarries. The Irish immigra-
tion was at its flood tide between 1846 and 1858, and the strong arms of
the Irish laborers, forced from their country by the cruel famine, which

THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH,

425

desolated it, were brought into play in the building of railways, the
quarrying of stone and the digging of canals. A customary sight on
Sundays was the marching of hundreds of men under the leadership of
their foreman to the churches eight and ten miles away to hear mass. As
can be fancied, some broke loose from the self-imposed leadership, and
at times disorders marked especially their return journey. The vast
outpouring of a people into a strange land is always accompanied by the
loosening of family ties, and by consequent freedom of restraint of their
home environments. Hence the few priests who could be secured for the
care of these streams of humanity, were overburdened and overwhelmed
by the vastness of the task assigned them. Oftentimes when the men
had come to this country with their families they were compelled by
necessity to leave them in the larger cities, especially New York, until
they had gone out to earn enough to provide a permanent home for them.
This gathering of large bodies of men without immediate family ties
easily gave rise to disorders, to remedy which the country local authorities
were often glad to call the priests’ influence, which never was exercised
in vain with the most stubborn Irish laborer, in whom is innate a deep
respect for religion and its ministers. Thus it was that the Rev. M. C.
Power’s influence springing from his kindly sympathetic nature and the
indefatigable work for his people was recognized by the whole community.
He built a fine church at Quarry ville. In 1864 when the Rt. Rev. John
McCloskey was appointed Archbishop of New York, it was also decided
to have the division of the two dioceses follow the county-lines, and
Saugerties was annexed to the diocese of New York, and its pastor Rev.
M. C. Power was transferred with it. His work continued till 1878,
when he retired quite advanced in years to Wappinger’s Falls, aiding
there his friend and classmate Father Sheehan and continuing there till
his death, under his able successors Rev. M. C. O’Keefe and the Rev.
Dr. C. V. O’Mahony. There he gave a large piece of ground for a park
around the church, and he also left a fair fortune to be used for re-
ligious purposes by this last friend, whose hospitable care he had always
received.

In 1878 the Rev. John F. Lynch attended to the spiritual wants of the
Catholics of the township of Saugerties from February to October. On
November lOth, 1878, the Rev. Denis Paul O’Flynn became pastor. He
was a native of County Cork, Ireland, and had successfully made his

426

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

studies for the priesthood at the famous University of Louvain, Belgium,
where he obtained the degree of Licentiate in theology. His pastorate was
earnest and vigorous, extending to the missions of Quarryville and Clove
till they were erected on April ist, 1886, into a separate mission and
placed under the charge of Rev. Michael Haran. This enabled Father
O’Flynn to direct his efforts to the building of a substantial church in
Glasco, where there was a thriving industrious people first attracted by
the Woodstock Glass Co. and later by the flourishing brickyards in the
neighborhood. In 1889 on transfer of Dean Dougherty to New York,
Father O’Flynn was appointed by Archbishop Corrigan at the synod in
New York in November, Dean or Vicar-forane of the counties of Ulster
and Sullivan. In 1892 the Church of St. Mary in Saugerties was seriously
damaged by fire, and Father O’ Flynn undertook its renovation and en-
largement on an expensive scale, placing in it splendid marble altars, fine
pews and other ornamental furniture. This was, however, done at a
time of great financial depression when quite a large amount of the busi-
ness of Saugerties was discontinued, and the burden of debt upon the
church plant has hampered the efforts of succeeding pastors. Connected
with the church he had built a fine rectory and a substantial brick school-
house where four sisters of charity have since then been engaged as
teachers. The Rev. D. P. O’Flynn in 1893 promoted to the perma-
nent pastorate of the important church of St. Joseph on Sixth Avenue in
New York, where he continued till his death in August, 1906, to display
the energy for which he was distinguished at Saugerties. Here he was
succeeded by the Rev. M. J. Murray, who, ordained at Mt. St. Mary’s,
Emmittsburgh, Maryland, had been assistant at St. Joseph’s, New York,
and pastor for several years at Rhinecliff. During Father Murray’s
administration a hall was erected near the church which became the
center of many social and dramatic gatherings of Catholics and non-
Catholics attracted by Father Murray’s personality. Glasco had mean-
while become quite an Italian settlement, which necessitated the frequent
ministrations of an Italian priest. It has had for several years the services
of Rev. Henry Newey, whose education in Rome enabled him to deal
with them very satisfactorily. He continues to do this even since the
transfer of Father Murray to Riverdale, New York, under the pastorate
of the Rev. John J. McCabe, who came to Saugerties in April, 1905.
Strenuous efforts have been made to diminish the heavy load of debt.

THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH.

427

The Rev. John J. McCabe had been for many years assistant at St.
Stephen’s, New York, since his ordination at the Troy Seminary on
December 21st, 1889, and has therefore been able to call upon his friends
in that congregation for aid in his arduous task.

The Rev. Michael Haran was transferred to West Hurley in 1903, and
was succeeded by the energetic assistant at St. Thomas’, New York, Rev.
Thomas Halpin as pastor of Clove and Quarryville. Besides the two
churches already built at Clove of St. John the Evangelist, and at Quarry-
ville of St. Patrick, he has for the convenience of the congregation set
apart a chapel under the invocation of St. Thomas, near the rectory, be-
sides renovating and refurnishing the two other churches.

RONDOUT.

The first record connected with a Catholic church in Rondout is “an
account of names of men who subscribed towards the building of a
Roman Catholic Church in Rondout, and its vicinity by order of the Rev.
Mr. P. O’Reilly” on September 22d, 1835. The contributors were Thomas
Penny, James Diamond, John O’Reilly, Terence O’Reilly, Patrick Don-
nely, Patrick McCanna, James Melton, Larry Fallon, John McCarten,
James Murray, Thomas Rigney, Roland Mulholland, Daniel Riordan,
William Williams, Garrett Connolly, Michael Quin, Edward Moloy,
Matthew Walsh, Edward Brown, Patrick Flanigan, Barney Daly, ODy
O’Rorke. The amount of this first collection was $32.02. Another meet-
ing was held on October 6th, when the amount contributed reached
$72.99, one-quarter of which was deposited on October 21st, in the Ulster
County Bank. By November 4th, the amount had been increased by
eleven dollars, and the Rev. Philip O’Reilly came in person on November
30th, 1835, and he gave his sanction and encouragement to the eifort made
in these words : “As a clergyman deputed by the Bishop of the Diocese
of New York to form missions and build churches on the banks of the
Hudson River I do by these presents fully and entirely approve of the
above manner of collecting money for the building of a church in this
village of Rondout, as also of the manner used in depositing the sums col-
lected in Ulster County Bank as mentioned above. In testimony of which,
etc., Philip O’Reilly, Pastor of the Congregations on the Hudson River,
Diocese of New York, Rondout, Nov. 30th, 1835.” The moneys in bank
were deposited by John Diamond, John O’Reilly, Thos. Rigney, Michael

428

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

Quin and John Kenney. Frequent meetings were held by the people to
advance the collection of the necessary amount. The next recorded visit
of the Rev. Philip O’Reilly was on May 30th, 1836, when he met in John
O’Reilly’s house about thirty-three Catholics. At the end of this meeting
the amount collected had reached $156.95. On August i8th he again
visited Rondout, and left the following record: 'T have on this day,
Thursday, the i8th of August, 1836, audited the accounts of James Dia-
mond and John O’Reilly with the Catholic Church of this village up to
the present day and find them to be substantially correct. The amount in
hand at the present time is 193 dollars and 38 cents which is deposited
in the office of the Hudson and Delaware Canal Co. in the name of the
Bishop as Trustee for the congregation Philip O’Reilly, Pastor of the
congregations on the Hudson River.”

Rondout at this time was little more than a hamlet. While the other
stations were attended with fair regularity once a month on Sunday, Ron-
dout probably had the benefit of any fifth Sunday occurring in the month,
but it had to rely mainly on the visits of Father O’Reilly at long intervals
on week days. Mass was said in various private houses such as John
O’Reilly’s and Thomas Penny’s. On the Sundays the larger apartment
of a blind and sash factory in the corner of Mill St. and Division St. (later
Union Avenue, now Broadway), was kindly placed at the disposal of the
Catholics for mass. As the greater number of the Catholics were em-
ployed in connection with the Delaware and Hudson Canal and there-
fore lived along the Wilbur Road, in January, 1837, a lot was there pur-
chased for the $200 gathered up to that time, on which a church was to
be built. Meanwhile, however, Rondout was made dependent upon the
pastor of Poughkeepsie, the Rev. John Smith, who in 1838 thought it
desirable to have the church erected on its present site, which was pur-
chased from Abraham Hasbrouck on which payment was made of $100
on November 4th, 1839. At this time 77 names of men appear on the
lecords as contributing toward the purchase of this property, and at
Poughkeepsie on the same November 4th, 1839, is recorded “An article
of agreement between James Crowley and the Rev. John Smith on behalf
of the Building Committee appointed by the said Rev. John Smith for
the purpose of building a Catholic Church in Rondout, Ulster Co., State
of New York. The said James Crowley binds himself to build a church
40 feet by 24 feet in width, 12 feet high of sound materials, frame of

THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH.

429

which must be set on posts 3 feet high for the sum of $400 dollars, $100 of
which must be paid before the work commenced and the balance as may
be collected from the subscribers or paid in by the Building Committee
to the said James Crowley, who binds himself to cover in the building in
one month from the above date.”

This gave a great impetus to the collection and by January ist, 1840,
$416.00 had been contributed by 87 persons, with an additional aid of a
collection from Bishop Hughes, Rev. Starrs and Rev. McGurry amount-
ing to $160.00. In this contribution are found the names of the first two
women contributors, Mary Giddy, Ann O’Reilly. The new position of the
church was thought to suit the convenience of not a few Catholics who
were living further inland, toward and in the mountains. In fact there
were probably scattered in a large territory about one hundred families,
but in those early days not a few of the Irish Catholics working along the
canal route in Rosendale and others in Stony Hollow were known to walk
every Sunday the eight or ten miles to hear mass in St. Mary’s Church in
Rondout. The Baptismal Record of St. Mary’s Church, Rondout, was
begun by the Rev. John Smith in January, 1841, and the first name
recorded is that of John Flanigan, born December 27th, 1840. The first
recorded burials in the cemetery attached to the church was of two chil-
dren of Patrick Malia and James Burke in February, 1840. In July,

1841, a second payment of $100 was made to Abraham Hasbrouck for the
land on which the church was to be erected.

When the Rev. John Smith was in 1842 transferred to New York, he
was succeeded as pastor of Poughkeepsie by his assistant the Rev. Myles
Maxwell, whose duty it was to attend Poughkeepsie on two Sundays of
each month, and on one, Saugerties, and on the other Rondout. He had
this very arduous task till 1845, when Saugerties and Rondout were
formed into a separate mission of which Rev. Myles Maxwell was ap-
pointed pastor. His first recorded official act was on Sunday, July 24th,

1842, the administration of baptism to nine children.

The balance in hand of Treasurer was $65. The collection in the
church on that day was $31. John Reilly was still collector and treas-
urer, and the amount collected to September 27th, of that same year, 1842,
$210 more ; in all $306, and of this amount $283.31 were spent before that
date for the enlargement and painting of the church and for putting a
fence around it. On November 28th, 1842, a memorandum is made of a

430

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

payment made to Abraham Hasbrouck in his house of $ioo for the land
on which the church was situated. Thus we realize the rapid increase
of the congregation when Father Maxwell so soon found need to enlarge
the frame church barely completed in 1840.

In 1845, Saugerties and Rondout having been made into a separate
mission, Father Maxwell took up his residence in Saugerties attending
Rondout every second Sunday. Many drove, some even walked on the
other Sundays to Saugerties to hear mass.

In 1847 Father Maxwell’s zeal prompted him to visit Shandaken, but
in May of this year took place the establishment of the diocese of Albany
already mentioned in reference to Saugerties, which with Shandaken were
incorporated into the new diocese, and the Rev. Myles Maxwell was left
in charge of the mission of Rondout but as it embraced the territory
now dotted with the separate churches of Port Ewen, Stony Hollow,
Jockey Hill, Wilbur, Eddyville, Whiteport, Flatbush and Kingston, it is
clear that there was ample space for his earnest zeal. When relieved of
the care of Saugerties and neighboring places, he redoubled his energy
in behalf of Rondout. He at once planned the erection of a large and
splendid brick church. He engaged the services of the brilliant architect
Keeley of Brooklyn and undertook, under his guidance, what for those
early days was a wonderful and daring project, that of erecting the
splendid building which is still recognized as an ornament of the town.
The corner-stone was laid on May 21st, 1848. The frame building was
left standing within the new edifice till a short time before the solemn
blessing of the present building which took place on July 8th, 1849.
Father Maxw^ell did not long survive the completion of the work to which
he had bent all his strength. He died on August 31st, 1849. His remains
were first interred in the adjoining cemetery and afterward placed within
the precincts of the church which he had built.

It has been thought proper to go into somewhat minute details of the
pioneer work of the founders of the first parishes of Ulster County, Saug-
erties and Rondout, to bring out the difficulties under which they labored,
and to place on record the indomitable energies which laid the foundation
of the prosperous spiritual and material conditions of the Catholic Church
throughout the county. The great bulk of the Catholics was from the
ranks of the hard-working Irish immigrants, wrenched from their home
environment of lively faith and purity of morals, and cast into completely

THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH.

431

new surroundings, amidst a population hostile to their religion, and of
traditional racial prejudices. Very many were bereft of family ties and
of the many influences emanating from them, yet their strong faith, their
wonderful supernatural love of their religion remained. Deprived as
they necessarily were of frequent contact with the exercise of their
religion, they were not free from disorders, some by intermarriages out-
side the church allowed their children to be lost to the church; but it is
remarkable how quickly their own faith was rekindled when the priest
appeared on the scene, and they once more had a chance to approach the
practices of their religion.

Rev. Thomas Quinn and Rev. Wm. Quinn, afterward Vicar-general
of New York, administered to the spiritual needs of Rondout till Novem-
ber, 1849, when a very energetic missionary of the order of St. Dominic,
in whom Bishop Hughes reposed great confidence, the Rev. Thomas
Martin, was appointed pastor. Born in Ireland about 1794, shortly after
he reached the years of manhood he came to this country and entered the
Order of St. Dominic in St. Rose’s Convent in Kentucky ; he was ordained
in 1824. After twelve years of arduous tasks in Kentucky, and a visit
to Rome on business of his order, he was persuaded to give his services
to the diocese of New York. In 1840 he had charge of Newport and
Schuyler, in 1845 of Utica, where he established a temperance society.
He was in Troy, 1847, St. Peter’s, New York, in 1849. He was a

laborious disinterested priest who always asked the hardest place. When
he had brought all to peace and harmony or had helped to build a church
or get rid of a crushing debt, his only anxiety was to begin the same work
elsewhere. The early demise of Father Maxwell, so soon after the com-
pletion of the church, had left it in a very difficult position to meet the
large outlay required for this really serious undertaking. The people
responded generously to Father Martin’s appeals, and he was able at a
cost of $1,500 to procure even a fine organ for the church. His zeal
prompted him to erect a church in Rosendale in which mass was said
for the first time in August, 1850. Before that the Catholics of Rosendale
attended mass in Rondout, whence the priests had still to give their ser-
vices till i860. Father Martin’s zealous pastorate continued in Rondout
till January, 1852. Then a new emergency arising in St. Bridget’s Church
in New York from the illness of its founder Father Kein, required the
exercise of Father Martin’s zeal and winning ways. A similar need

432

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

called him in 1855 to the Church of the Holy Cross. As Father Martin’s
short pastorate left a deep impress upon the Catholics of this neighbor-
hood, we have thought well to recall the eulogy made by Bishop Hughes
at his funeral in May, 1859, at St. James’ of which he had recently been
appointed pastor :

“From St. Bridget’s he went to the then hardly formed congregation
in 42d Street (Holy Cross) when, without haranguing, he began silently
and noiselessly to work to show them their way through their difficulties,
until the people began to understand themselves and to be a congregation
— a numerous congregation.” He was 69 years of age at the time of his
death. He was succeeded in the pastorate of Rondout by his assistant the
Rev. John Madden, who had come from Ireland with his brother Michael,
who became an influential parishioner of St. Mary’s.

During these years an old time schoolmaster Stephen Hardy, who also
acted as church sexton and superintendent of the nearby cemetery, held
despotic sway over the children. When he left the class, there was an
uproar, and then the guilty and innocent alike were treated to dire punish-
ment. The special one for the boys was to be tied by their thumbs to the
door lintel.

In 1851 the lot running through from Division St. (now Broadway), to
Adams St. had been purchased by Father Martin, and in 1852 the Rev.
John Madden built thereon the rectory. Till then the priests had occupied
a small frame house on the opposite side of the street. He also purchased
in 1855 in Higginsville, Kingston, a large lot of ground on which he in-
tended to build a church for the many Catholics in the neighborhood or
in the nearby mountains at Jockey Hill and Stony Hollow. The lot,
however, was afterward sold, though kept till 1870.

At the beginning of 1858, came the Rev. Francis McNeirny, after-
ward Bishop of Albany, whose pastorate ended in May, when he had as
successor the Rev. D. G. Durning, who remained in charge for about 18
months. Then in the fall of 1859 the Rev. Felix H. Farrelly came from
New York to be pastor of Rondout. A native of Ireland he had been
ordained to the priesthood in 1854 at All Hallow’s College, near Dublin,
and on his coming in that year to the United States was assigned as
assistant at the Church of the Nativity in New York and within two
years appointed to the charge of the Church of the Annunciation in Man-
hattanville. His discharge of his duties here showed so much zeal for the

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433

good of souls and such ability that the now important parish of Rondout
was entrusted to him. His services were of the greatest benefit to this
parish, as he remained five years, effecting great good and infusing ordef
and system into all parochial affairs. At this period of the Civil War his
influence greatly calmed the violent protests aroused against the draft for
soldiers. He encouraged many by his own spirit of patriotism. He did
not hesitate to show his disgust for slavery. A trip which with other
priests, the Revs. Thomas Farrell and Sylvester Malone, he had made to
the south some time before the war, had impressed him particularly with
the immoral results of slavery, involving as they did the whites, as much
as the negroes. He introduced into the parish of Rondout the Sisters of
Charity under whose charge he established St. Mary’s Academy. He had
for the boys as teacher a Mr. Shelter, a former Christian Brother, whose
teaching was excellent, and his influence very great; his memory was
long in benediction among the children. Father Farrelly also purchased
the spacious cemetery on the Flatbush road, where the remains of the
Catholics of Kingston, Port Ewen, West Hurley are still interred. Many
are brought from distant places to be laid with the remains of their fore-
fathers. The name of Farrelly Street at the eastern end of the cemetery
records his connection with it. With his cooperation Stony Hollow was
formed into a separate mission in charge of Rev. S. Mackin in 1865, with
Jockey Hill as a station. Father Farrelly, however, was this year re-
called to New York to take charge of an immense congregation attached
to St. James’ Church in New York. He died pastor of St. Joseph’s in
1883. was succeeded at Rondout in 1865 by the Rev. Edward Briody
who had been ordained in 1849 by Bishop Hughes, and had established
churches in Port Jervis and Ellen ville. He made several improvements,
the principal of which was the introduction of furnaces for the heating
of the church. He was transferred to St. Patrick’s, Newburgh, in 1867,
and was followed in the pastorate of Rondout by the Rev. James Coyle
whose earnestness and zeal are still spoken of by the parishioners of his
day. He was a very strong advocate of total abstinence from all alcoholic
beverages, and to his enthusiasm was due the formation of a very large
2md zealous society whose good influence has extended through time for
the great improvement of the parish. To his zeal was due in 1868 the
long planned formation in the village of Kingston of the parish of St.
Joseph, to which was assigned as Pastor the newly ordained Rev. James

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THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

Dougherty, a native of Kingston and the first of Ulster County to be
raised to the priesthood. Father Coyle also purchased in 1867 the ground
on the corner of McEntee Street and Union Avenue (now Broadway) on
which he erected a large parochial school which was soon crowded with
children. When Father Mackin had occasion to go in 1867 to Ireland,
Father Coyle did not hesitate to take charge of Stony Hollow and Jockey
Hill, in both of which he built churches, and on Father Mackin’s return
in 1870 gave to him a full account of the moneys collected and the ex-
penses. The spiritual welfare, however, of all the people committed to his
care was Father Coyle’s chief concern. At a mission during his pas-
torate over 5,000 persons approached the sacraments. He died suddenly
in New York, and at his funeral in Rondout on July 4th, 1872, the
preacher stated that since his ordination in 1852 he had built thirteen
churches or chapels. His remains were buried under St. Mary’s Church.
Father Coyle’s grasp of financial details was not strong and mechanics
and contractors availed themselves of his indecision, forgetfulness or
change of plans to involve the church property by heavy floating debts.

For ten months his successor was the scholarly Rev. M. J. O’Farrell,
who had been educated at the celebrated Seminary of St. Sulpice in
Paris, and as a member of the Order, had already done good work in
Montreal, Canada. While here he was visited by the distinguished
Dominican Father Burke, who made excellent use of Father O’Farrell’s
fine library in the preparation of his famous lectures to be delivered in
the Academy of Music, New York, in refutation of Froude’s one-sided
views and misstatements of English and Irish history. Yet he showed
himself very practical in financial matters. At a fair he raised $3,000 to
meet the floating debts left by his predecessor. He gave proof of his
earnest spiritual zeal by giving a two weeks’ mission, preaching the usual
four sermons a day alone, and hence within the time of his short pastorate
1,010 children and adults were confirmed by Bishop McNeirny. He was
soon promoted to the pastorate of St. Peter’s Church in New York, and
in 1881 he was made first Bishop of Trenton, New Jersey. He died in
1894. His successor at Rondout was the Rev. Michael Carthage O’Far-
rell, who, full of energy, came there in June, 1873 j he had been assistant
at St. Peter’s, New York. His first work was to enlarge the pastoral
residence, then to establish an academy or college under the Franciscan
Brothers, for which he erected a building alongside the church through

THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH.

435

a bequest of $10,000 of Thomas Murray, who died in April, 1873.
Churches were established by him in Port Ewen, erected into a separate
mission under Rev. Michael Phelan, and also in Flatbush now known as
East Kingston. In July, 1876, he was appointed pastor of St. Teresa’s
Church, New York, and is now rector of the Church of the Holy Inno-
cents, New York. In Rondout he was in August succeeded by the Rev.
John J. Duffy, D.D., who remained pastor of St. Mary’s till his death
in April, 1888. During his pastorate the trustees of District No. 3 of
Rondout finding that the school house of the district was unable to con-
tain all the children of the district, made an arrangement with the
Franciscan Brothers to act as teachers for boys in the building next to
the church, which was hired as a branch school for the district. This
arrangement continued till 1895, when the trustees of District No. 3 in-
fluenced by the clamor that a public school was thus placed under sec-
tarian influence, enlarged the main building, and discontinued the employ-
ment of the Franciscan Brothers as teachers. These, therefore, withdrew
to their mother-house in Brooklyn. Dr. Duffy had graduated in the
classical and law departments of the University of New York, and then
going to the American College in Rome, had attended the theological
course at the Propaganda. He was ordained in Rome, and on his return
home in 1872 was stationed at St. Joseph’s Church, of which the pastor
was the Rev. Thomas Farrell. Dr. Duffy gained fame as an eloquent
speaker and at the inauguration of the monument of the sailors and
soldiers of the War for the Union on the terrace in front of the King-
ston City Hall, a patriotic discourse delivered by him made quite a lasting
impression. In a mission given by the Jesuits in 1879, nearly 4,000
persons approached the sacraments. Dr. Duffy had been ambitious to
clear off the whole of the church debt, but in his later years in conse-
quence of failing health his energy fell off, and on his assistant the
Rev. J. L. Hoey, devolved the more laborious work of the parish. Dr.
Duffy died in April, 1888, and his successor, the Rev. Peter J. Prender-
gast, found an indebtedness of about $13,000 to which he was obliged to
add to meet the expense of a needed thorough renovation of the rectory.
Father Prendergast had come from Middletown; his pastorate in Ron-
dout lasted two years, and he was then transferred to New York, on July
31st, 1890, to be made rector of the Church of the Epiphany in place of

436

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

its founder the Rev. Dr. Burtsell. He died there after an incumbency of
ten years.

Rev. R. L. Burtsell, D.D., came to Rondout on November 8th,
1890, in his 51st year. He had spent all the years of his ministry
since 1862 in New York City, for five years as assistant at St. Ann’s and
for more than twenty-two years as pastor of the Epiphany parish, which
he had established and in which he had built the splendid church, rectory
and school, leaving behind him the comparatively small debt of $60,000,
though the actual cost of the property belonging to the Church of the
Epiphany had been over $328,000. Archbishop Corrigan had taken um-
t)rage at Dr. Burtsell’s advocacy of the right of Rev. Dr. McGlynn to
teach the politico-economical theory of Henry George which the Arch-
■bishop thought to be in conflict with Catholic doctrine, and had thought
'it wise to remove Dr. Burtsell from the principal scene of the agitation.
New York City.

I Dr. Burtsell accepted without a murmur the decision, and gave
himself with energy to the work assigned him in his new mis-
sion. In 1891 he undertook a complete renovation of the interior as
well as exterior of St. Mary’s Church, which had fallen into a state of
decay. The church exterior was painted, and extensive decorations of the
ceiling and walls brightened the appearance of the church. In the same
year St. Colman’s Church in Flatbush (now designated East Kingston)
was considerably enlarged and in October Bishop Conroy dedicated it
anew, the people being so in earnest as to meet all the expenses of $2,000
within the year.

Dr. Burtsell in December, 1892, had the consolation of obtaining
from the Pope’s Delegate, Mgr. Satolli, the complete reconcilia-
tion of his friend Rev. Dr. McGlynn, with the church authorities, and the
declaration of the Delegate, after investigation by the professors of the
Catholic University in Washington, D. C., that his politico-economical
land theory was not in opposition to the teachings of the Church. The
Pope, in May, 1893, received Rev. Dr. McGlynn, as a sanction of his
Delegate’s action. This question brought about in the fall of 1893
in 1894 a stay of several months of Dr. Burtsell in Rome, which proved
eminently satisfactory, and gave him ample opportunities to submit to the
Pope many views of things that seemed useful for the direction of the
Church in the United States, but Dr. Burtsell did not allow such matters

THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH.

437

to prevent his attention to the spiritual needs of the parish of Rondout.
In fact he had called the Paulists to give a mission in the parish in 1893.
In 1896 the Passionists, in 1899 and 1902 the Diocesan Band of Apostolic
Missionaries and again in 1904 the Dominicans gave very successful mis-
sions, which were extended to East Kingston. A most agreeable feature
of both visits of the Diocesan Band of Missionaries was the attendance in
large numbers of distinguished non-Catholics at a series of special lectures
which they gave on those doctrines and practices of which erroneous im-
pressions have alienated from the Catholic Church many otherwise en-
lightened and truth loving souls. Catholics realize that the best way to
bring about the Christian unity for which there is to-day such earnest
desire, is the thorough explanation of the doctrines of the Church. Their
consistency and reasonableness cannot but make a deep impression upon
all upon whom the Holy Spirit is breathing his inspirations to truth and
charity.

There has been no lagging in the material improvements' in the
parish. During 1895 the whole congregation took an active interest in
the thorough renovation and beautifying of the church. The laying of a
new flooring, handsome pews and artistic stained glass windows were
a considerable part of the renovation. The crowning improvement was in
1896, the erection of the three marble altars of the church and the com-
plete renewal of everything connected with the sanctuary. The response
by the parishioners to every appeal was so generous as to meet all these
expenses besides doing away with all the former indebtedness on the
church property. The Church was thus placed in the condition fitting for
its consecration. This conspicuous ceremony of the Consecration of the
Church was performed by Archbishop Corrigan on the first Sunday of
September, 1896. Bishop Shanley of Fargo, N. Dakota, preached at the
solemn high mass, and Dr. James Loughlin of Philadelphia at Vespers
on this occasion. Since then have been added the artistic oil paintings
of the Way of the Cross, and a series of oil frescoes on the Sanctuary
wall by the hand of Filippo Costaggini, who painted many of the his-
torical subjects in the dome of the Capitol at Washington, D. C. In 1898
a thorough census was taken of the parish, and there were found in
Rondout 712 families with 3,300 souls and in East Kingston 80 families
and 370 souls.

In the year 1898 the parish of St. Mary’s, Rondout, was de-

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THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

dared by Archbishop Corrigan to be henceforth a permanent rector-
ship, and the present rector to be its first permanent rector. This honor
confers upon the rector of the parish the irremovability from the rector-
ship except by special canonical process, and also a positive voice in the
nomination of candidates for the archbishopric of New York. The com-
memoration of the fiftieth year of St. Mary’s Church was solemnly held
on the first Sunday of September, 1899, when Archbishop Corrigan cele-
brated pontifical mass, assisted by the Revs. Wm. L. Penny and Edward
F. Slattery, natives of Rondout of the earliest generation. The preacher
in the morning was the Rev. James Dougherty, pastor of St. Monica’s
in New York, a native of Kingston. Others officiating, as the Revs. J. J.
Boyle, J. J. Keane and R. Burns, received their first impulses to the priest-
hood while serving around its sanctuary. Monsignor Joseph Mooney,
Vicar-general, a native of Pennsylvania, but brought up in Rondout,
preached at Vespers. Revs. J. L. Hoey, Patrick Morris and M. J. Fitz-
patrick, who also took part, had been formerly attached to St. Mary’s.
The Revs. J. J. Hickey and John B. McHugh were the actual assistants
of the rector.

Rondout has been recognized in the annals of the diocese of
New York as giving more priests to the sanctuary and more members
to the various sisterhoods than any place outside New York City.
At the synod of November, 1901, Archbishop Corrigan appointed Dr.
Burtsell Vicar-forane, or Dean of Ulster and Sullivan Counties. Dr.
Burtsell interested himself not only in St. Mary’s parish, but in public
civil matters as well, gladly taking part in the plans of the Board of
Trade, in the Association for good roads; he was instrumental in the
establishment of the City Hospital and of the public library, and also in
the introduction of the Sanitarium in charge of the Benedictine Sisters.
That his work was appreciated by the citizens, non-Catholics as well as
Catholics, was proven by the great spontaneous demonstration in the
Church and the public Armory at the celebration of his 40th year of
priesthood on August loth and nth, 1902. At the church Bishop (then
Administrator, now Archbishop) Farley, presided; Monsignor Loughlin,
of Philadelphia, preached; Bishop Chatard, of Indianapolis, and Mon-
signor Cannon, of Lockport, were prominent among 30 clergymen in
the Sanctuary. In the Armory addresses were made by Chief Judge
Parker, who presided, by Judge VanEtten, Alderman William Roach on

THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH.

439

behalf of the parishioners; Hon. John J. Linson, Mayor Block, in the
presentation of Resolutions by the Common Council of the City; John
W. Heany, in the presentation of a purse of $i,ooo on the part of the
parishioners; Michael J. Joyce, representative of a large delegation
present from the Parish of the Epiphany, New York; Congressman
George J. Smith and Judge A. T. Clearwater.

Attention is called to this, because it was a public recognition of the
intertwining of the sympathies of all classes and religious denominations,
a manifestation of the thorough disappearance in civil matters of all
racial and religious prejudices which are easily overcome by the inter-
mingling of all in works of common public good, and the consequent
better knowledge of one another attained by citizens of all classes and
races.

Rev. Dr. Burtsell paid another visit to Rome in 1904, to assist at the
50th anniversary of the Definition or Solemn Recognition by the Church
that the Mother of Jesus had by His merits been freed from incurring
the stain of original sin ; he had been present at the Definition itself. He
had the honor of presenting the addresses in the name of the Diocese of
New York to Pope Pius X, and Archbishop Farley took occasion, through
his auxiliary, Bishop Cusack, to send a petition to His Holiness to honor
Dr. Burtsell by admitting him to the membership of the Pontifical house-
hold as one of his private chamberlains. On Dr. Burtsell’s return from
Rome another public demonstration was offered him of the affection of
his people and of the citizens at large, by a procession through streets
illuminated and bedecked with flags, amidst skyrockets and other fire-
works, and ending in a grand reception at the Kingston Armory. It
is a delightful thought to him that he has been an instrument to break
down barriers of prejudice, and to unite the people of this city in common
interests, and all through some slight efforts made by him for the com-
mon good of the whole city.

ROSENDALE.

The Rev. John N. Smith, pastor of Poughkeepsie, extended his solici-
tude as far as Rosendale in 1840, and in 1841, looking after the scattered
Catholics. Father Myles Maxwell, succeeding him in Poughkeepsie, in
1842, celebrated mass in Petrie’s cooper shop, afterward the dwelling-
house of James Lee. Of course, he continued this care of Rosendale,
when he was made pastor of Rondout, and it became a separate mission.

440

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

In 1849, November, the Rev. Thomas Martin, O. S. D., then pastor at
Rondout, celebrated mass in Rosendale at the house of Walter Delmar,
and henceforth services continued to be held regularly and steps were
taken to erect a church. A convenient building was opened in the
summer of 1850, the first mass being said on the Feast of the Assumption
of the Blessed Virgin Mary, August 15th. The priests of Rondout con-
tinued the good work by frequent regular visits to Rosendale, till 1855,
when it was separated from Rondout, of which the assistant, Rev. Edward
Lynch, was appointed the pastor.

However, in the next year he was called to the charge of a church
in Yonkers, and Rosendale had to wait till the end of i860 for the ap-
pointment of a permanent pastor, it being meanwhile looked after
by the pastors of Rondout. In December, i860, the Rev. Lawrence
OToole, a learned priest, and a great advocate of total abstinence
from intoxicants, became pastor, remaining there till November of 1864.
He afterward was at Rhinecliil parish, where he established a college or
academy. The Rev. Patrick Brady became pastor of Rosendale, having a
fairly successful pastorate of ten years, till July, 1874, when he was
transferred to Montgomery, Orange Co. His successor was the Rev.
Martin O’Flaherty. He was ordained in St. Joseph’s Seminary, Troy,
on June nth, 1870, and after four years at St. Cecelia’s, in New York,
came in July, 1874, in the full vigor of his zeal and strength, to Rosen-
dale. Finding that the church was too small for the ever-increasing
Catholic population, attracted by the cement quarries and by the demands
of the Delaware & Hudson Canal, he erected, under the guidance of an
able architect, Arthur Crooks, a spacious church on the beautiful plateau
which overlooks the village of Rosendale and the Rondout valley.

It was completed in 1876, and mass was said in it for the
first time on Christmas day. No finer situation could be had for the
church edifice. Its picturesqueness is simply charming. The design of the
church is excellent. The rectory, begun at the same time, is twenty feet
away from the rear of the church. The two combined form a work of
art. The cost was about $31,000. The Catholic population at the time
was about 1,400. Father O’Flaherty died in 1881. He was immediately
succeeded by the Rev. John J. Gleason, who added to the parish a fine
school and a residence for the Sisters of Charity. He incurred a great
expense by fitting up an elaborate heating apparatus for all these different

Rev. Edward J. McCue.

THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH.

441

buildings. Too full of the spirit of material improvements, he over-
burdened the place with debt, which, owing to the decrease of the congre-
gation consequent upon the precariousness of the work in the cement
quarries, and the gradual falling off of work on the canal, became a
great burden on the congregation and a source of such worry to the
pastor that his health failed, and he was unfitted for his pastoral work
for several years previous to his death, in 1894. Father Gleason left a
legacy of $500 to the Kingston Hospital. Among those who aided him
during his pastorate should be mentioned the Rev. Reuben Parsons,
whose work in six volumes of “Studies in Church History,” is a splendid
monument by which he will be long remembered. Another worthy of
mention is the Rev. Dr. Daniel Burke, for several months the adminis-
trator of the parish. A native of New York, who made his ecclesiastical
studies at the Jesuit Colleges of Innsbruck and Rome, Professor of Phi-
losophy at St. Joseph’s Seminary of Troy, he had shown himself an inde-
fatigable worker in the parishes of the Epiphany and St. Leo in New
York, as also at Highland Falls. Archbishop Corrigan began to utilize
him to take difficult places, such as this at Rosendale, and then again at
Wilbur. Now after services at the Church of the Good Counsel and St.
Charles Borromeo’s, in New York, he has undertaken the erection of two
churches for Italians, one completed in Bedford Park, the other just
initiated in Belmont.

Archbishop Corrigan had in 1894 detached Whiteport from Rosendale,
placing it in charge of the Rev. Wm. McGill, who, being a native of
Rondout, had been able at a very moderate price to raise there a fine
brick church. At Father Gleason’s death Whiteport was again attached
to Rosendale under the charge of the Rev. Wm. M. McGill, who, how-
ever, within a few months of his appointment, died suddenly on a visit to
the Home of the Immaculate Virgin in New York.

The Rev. Thomas Cusack, ordained at St. Joseph’s Seminary, Troy, on
May 30th, 1885, was appointed in September, 1895, to the pastorate of
Rosendale. By his energy he brought order out of financial chaos,
funded and considerably reduced the debt. Archbishop Corrigan, how-
ever, asked him in 1897 to head the Apostolic Band of Missionaries to
give missions, including lectures to non-Catholics, throughout the diocese,
especially in small country parishes. The Rev. P. Maughan came 5n
1897 from Tivoli to take charge of Rosendale. He had been a soldier in

442

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

the war for the Union, and had many friends in the Grand Army. He
erected, supervising the entire structure, the large hall which has become
the centre of all social and dramatic gatherings of the congregation as of
the township. Father Maughan was called in 1903 to New York to
undertake the erection of a new church in the upper western section of
the city. His successor was the Rev. Francis C. Lenes, who also came
from Tivoli, but he, as his predecessor, found himself hampered by the
large debt, the burden being aggravated by the slackness of work at the
cement quarries. He was transferred to Montgomery, Orange County,
in 1905, to be succeeded at Rosendale by the present pastor. Rev. John
J. Lennon.

WEST HURLEY.

Another offshoot of St. Mary’s Rondout was the parish of Stony
Hollow and Flag Quarries. The last mentioned was attended in 1853 by
the Rev. Eugene McGuire and Thomas Joyce, from St. Mary’s, and
continued to be visited at intervals. Rev. Felix Farrelly and Richard
Brennan said mass in the school-house at Jockey Flill in i860 and 1861.
Stony Hollow increased rapidly in population because, as its name indi-
cates, it became the centre of the bluestone quarries, and received frequent
attention as early as i860. The work, howeyer, soon increased in
Rondout to the extent that Father Farrelly deemed it wise to have Stony-
Hollow and Jockey Hill placed under the separate charge of the Rev.
Stephen Mackin in 1865. The workmen were very generous. However,
Father Mackin was called away to Ireland, and the charge of the two
places was taken up again by the pastor at Rondout, the Rev. James
Coyle. His indefatigable zeal prompted him to erect a small frame church
at Jockey Hill, which was soon superseded by a better structure in the
nearby Sawkill. He also erected St. John’s Church in Stony Hollow.
Father Mackin returned in October, 1870, and Father Coyle gave him a
full account of all the moneys collected meanwhile, as always a detailed
account of the outlay for the building of the two churches. He continued
in charge till 1875, and besides the two mentioned places, had to attend to
the spiritual interests of the Catholics in Bruceville, Shandaken and
Phoenicia. An interesting financial report rendered by him in January,
1874, for the two preceding years, shows receipts at Stony Hollow of
$5,636, and at Sawkill of $2,311, with the indebtedness reduced from
$9,204 to $8,103, and from $4,000 to $3,813, respectively. The ever-

THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH.

443

increasing population prompted the erection of a finer and larger church on
a site known as Bristol Hill, midway between Stony Hollow and West
Hurley. The Rev. Eugene McKenna, who had come from Ireland in 1871,
and was attached to St. Andrew’s Church in New York, was appointed
pastor of West Hurley in 1875. He built, in 1877, a large frame church
in Allaben, near Shandaken, under the title of Our Lady of Lourdes.
Yet his report of January ist, 1881, showed that he had reduced the
debt of St. John’s, at West Hurley, to $5,500, and in 1890 the whole
indebtedness of the parish was on St. John’s Church, West Hurley, $4,000,
and $200 on the cemetery which he had provided in Phoenicia in the pre-
ceding year. When in 1877, he had extended his work along the Ulster
and Delaware Railroad, it had been arranged that Sawkill should be
cared for from St. Joseph’s, Kingston. In 1890 the number of souls
attached to St. John’s, West Hurley, was about 700, and to the Church
of Our Lady of Lourdes, at Allaben, about 200. In 1894 the Rev.
Eugene McKenna was transferred to Tarrytown, and Rev. Michael
Montgomery, coming from St. Columba’s, New York, took his place at
St. John’s, West Hurley. In 1893 a small church was built at Shokan at
the expense of a Mr. Wentworth, under the invocation of St. Augustine.
This involved a division of the parish, and the Rev. Francis Fagan was
appointed to take charge of Phoenicia, and that part of the mission
extending to Pine Hill. Father Fagan ordained, in December, 1887,
had been at St. Gabriel’s, New York, and then at Dobb’s Ferry, in control
during the last illness of Father David O’Connor, the pastor. Father
Fagan built a church in Pine Hill, though undergoing no little hardship
at Phoenicia, having no suitable residence.

During Father Montgomery’s incumbency St. John’s Church, at Bristol
Hill, was in 1896 burned to the ground, but was soon rebuilt and en-
larged. In 1897, because of Father Fagan’s transfer to Whiteport, the
charge of Shokan, Allaben, Phoenicia and Pine Hill devolved upon Father
Montgomery. He was succeeded for a few months by Father Kean, who
had been an assistant at St. Joseph’s New York, but whose health failed
rapidly. He died in a sanitarium in New Jersey within a year. In 1899,
Rev. Charles Reid came to West Hurley. Born in New York, he had been
sent to his imcle, a Bishop in Ireland, for his education. After his ordina-
tion he had returned to New York and was assigned to St. Bridget’s, as
assistant. Within three years, by watchful assiduity, he paid off much

444

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

of the indebtedness caused by the rebuilding of St. John’s Church. His
success prompted his promotion to the mission of Wappinger’s Falls, in
1903, when he was succeeded by the present rector, Rev. Michael Haran.
Coming from Ireland in 1873, he was ordained to the priesthood at St.
Joseph’s Seminary, Troy, in 1879. His first appointment was at Pawling,
then at St. Joseph’s, Kingston, whence he went as pastor to Quarry ville in
1886, where he did good work for seventeen years. He has Shokan for
a station, to be regularly attended, especially in summer.

Meanwhile in 1902, Phoenicia, with Allaben and Pine Hill, came under
the jurisdiction of the La Salette Fathers, represented by Rev. M. J.
Ginet, M. S. He has built in Phoenicia a splendid stone church, procured
a fine rectory and beautiful cemetery. He continues to manifest his zeal
in search of stray Catholics in distant hills, who had been overlooked, and
had fallen away from the faith. A curious question was this year sub-
mitted to arbitration under the authority of the Archbishop of New York,
and the Bishop of Albany, Rev. Dr. Burtsell, and Rev. James Curtin, of
Troy, being the appointed arbiters. The Grand Hotel is situated on the
line dividing Ulster County, in New York Diocese, and Delaware County,
in Albany Diocese. Priests from either diocese had exercised their juris-
diction there without any hesitation, and the Rev. M. J. Ginet had even
established, in 1904, a service for the help of the hotel. This brought out
a counterclaim from the Rev. J. F. Slattery, of Stamford, Delaware
Coimty, to the exclusive control of the Grand Hotel from the ecclesiastical
point of view, because the far greater part of the hotel was situated in
Delaware County, and his predecessor in Stamford, Father Livingstone,
as early as 1893, had prior positive possession. The arbiters, after the
examination of the proper survey, maps and the hearing of statements
of the former pastors of Stamford and West Hurley, recognized the
claim of Albany Diocese.

ST. Joseph’s, Kingston.

St. Joseph’s Parish, in Kingston, was the most important offshoot of St.
Mary’s, Rondout. As early as 1855 the Rev. John Madden had pur-
chased a large lot of ground in Higginsville, the most westerly part of
the village of Kingston, and the centre of quite a thriving business popu-
lation, among whom there were many Catholics. The site was not only
convenient for these, but being on the threshold of the city, by which

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445

Catholics from Stony Hollow and Jockey Hill were accustomed to enter it,
a church there would save them on Sundays the extra walk to the lower
■end of the city, where St. Mary’s was situated. However, Stony Hollow
and Jockey Hill, by 1865, had so increased in population that they
received a pastor in the person of the Rev. Stephen Mackin. This prob-
ably hastened the establishment of a church in Kingston, though Father
Coyle’s first thought was probably to retain it as a dependency of Rondout.
He came to the conclusion that the former site was not as desirable as at
the time of the purchase. To satisfy the impatience of the people of
Kingston he purchased for $2,600 the Young Men’s Gymnasium, on the
corner of Fair and Bowery Streets, which was at once turned into a
church, and in which mass was said for the first time on Sunday, Sep-
tember 2 1 St, 1868, by the Rev. James Dougherty, the Rev. Dr. Edward
McGlynn, being the preacher. Father Dougherty was a native of Rondout,
born in 1843, gone to St. Mary’s Parochial School, then to the
Christian Brothers’ College in Troy, and had graduated at St. John’s
College, under the Jesuits, at Fordham. He made his three years’ theo-
logical course at St. Joseph’s Seminary in Troy, and was ordained to
the priesthood on December 21st, 1867. He was sent at once to St.
Mary’s, Rondout, to aid Father Coyle, and was at once utilized to devote
special attention to the Kingston Catholics. The small chapel was so
quickly overcrowded that a larger building was sought. The former
Dutch Reformed Church on the corner of Wall and Main Streets had,
after the building of the more imposing building opposite, been turned
into a hall for lectures and amusements, and at the beginning of the Civil
War into a drill room and armory. It came into the possession of General
Gates and John C. Brodhead, who sold it to Father Coyle for $10,000,
though it required a much greater outlay to be put into shape for a
church. It is hard for us to-day to understand the excitement and agita-
tion caused among the people of the staid old Dutch town at the prospect
of having a Catholic Church in their very midst, especially so when it was
known that a building once used for their own worship w^as to be occu-
pied for the celebration of mass. However, the genial ways of Father
Dougherty quickly dispersed the clouds of discord when it was found that
the new church was a centre of earnest piety and good works.

He at first took up his residence in a small house on the corner of Wall
and Pearl Streets, till about 1874, he secured the lot at the rear of the

446

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

church, on which he built a convenient rectory. During the nigh twenty
years of his pastorate, no one could be more welcome even among the
non-Catholics than he. The new church was dedicated to the service of
God by Archbishop McCloskey, on Sunday, July 26th, 1869. The frame
building on the Bowery was turned into a school-house. When, about
1877, the pastor of Stony Hollow or West Hurley, extended care to the
newly built church of Allaben, near Shandaken, an arrangement was
made by which Jockey Hill, or Sawkill, was made dependent upon St.
Joseph’s Church. In 1884, Father Dougherty undertook the erection of
a church in Wilbur, which was for several years attended from St.
Joseph’s, till it was erected into a separate mission in 1887. In 1886, the
Rev. James Dougherty was appointed at the Diocesan Synod, as the repre-
sentative of the parishes outside of New York, one of the six members of
the first diocesan board of consultors which was established in accord
with the decrees of the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore. Their duty
is to assist by their advice the Archbishop in the administration of the
diocese. He was also appointed by Archbishop Corrigan his vicar-forane,
or dean, for the counties of Ulster and Sullivan, and also Chairman of the
Board of School Examiners, selected at this same synod for tiiese
counties. In March, 1888, he was transferred to St. Monica’s Church
in New York City, and in 1902 became permanent rector of St. Gabriel’s
Church, where he died on January ist, 1906, Archbishop Farley pontifi-
cating at his funeral on January 4th. His lifelong friend. Monsignor
Mooney, Vicar-General, preached the eulogy. His remains were brought
to Kingston, where a funeral service was held in St. Joseph’s Church,
filled to its utmost capacity by the most distinguished citizens of the city.
Very Rev. Dr. Burtsell preached on the occasion, and the interment was
made in St. Mary’s Cemetery, Kingston. He had been succeeded in St.
Joseph’s by the Rev. Edward J. Conroy, who while administering the
parish successfully for three years, yet found the work of the out-mission
of Jockey Hill irksome, and was therefore transferred to St. Mary’s,
Poughkeepsie, where he had to face an enormous debt, the burden of
which shortened his days.

The Rev. Edwin M. Sweeny, in May, 1891, took hold at St. Joseph’s,
Kingston, with great energy, and by his assiduous work did much to
improve its appearance, while at the same time securing a decrease of the
debt. He in 1893 was appointed Vicar-Forane, or Dean of Ulster and

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447

Sullivan Counties. His administration was successful, both from the
material and the spiritual standpoints; he in turn was transferred to
New York as pastor of the Church of the Ascension, where he, too, found
a very large debt, which he quickly reduced, and obtained proof of his
influence with his new people by their co-operation in improvements on
a large scale. The Rev. Edward McCue, who had been Father Conroy’s
assistant in 1889-90, at St. Joseph’s, and then had gone to New Brighton,
S. L, and afterwards as assistant of Bishop Farley, at St. Gabriel’s, New
York, now returned in October, 1901, to Kingston to begin an active career
as pastor of St. Joseph’s. At once he undertook a complete renovation
of the rectory, and then put in new marble altars in the church, with
fine interior decorations of the whole building. His congregation co-
operated with his untiring activity and aided him in his new projects,
whilst he did not fail to meet the past indebtedness. His latest successful
work was to secure, at the moderate sum of $10,000, the substantial
mansion, formerly owned by Judge Alton B. Parker, for a convent of
the Sisters of Charity, and a parochial school, on the corner of Pearl and
Clinton Avenue, opposite the Kingston Academy. The former school has
been turned into a parish hall. With these outward or material signs of
improvement, the spiritual advancement of the congregation has kept
pace through the good work of those who have had charge of St. Joseph’s
Church. Father McCue, at the mission given in his church in 1905, by the
Diocesan Apostolic Band of Missionaries gave the opportunity to the
non-Catholics to obtain a thorough knowledge of the teachings and prac-
tices of the Catholic Church, through the series of lectures which the
missionaries gave during the week after they had given a two weeks’
mission directly intended for the Catholics of the Parish.

WILBUR.

Wilbur, as forming part of the city of Kingston, now merits our
attention. The Rev. James Dougherty had, as early as 1884, planned to
give facilities for its people to hear mass without having to make the
long journey up the hill. Wilbur was a centre of fairly numerous families,
attracted there by the extensive stone-cutting, which came from its being
the terminus of the stone road from the bluestone quarries at West
Hurley. There the stone, too, was laden on the canal boats for transporta-
tion to New York and elsewhere. The corner-stone of the church was

448

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

laid on July 17th, 1884, by Archbishop Corrigan. Its title was to be
the Church of the Holy Name of Jesus. Rev. Joseph Mooney, then pastor
of St. Patrick’s in Newburg, gave an able address on the occasion. In
spite of the rain a large number of people, Catholics and non-Catholics,
were present. The site chosen was eminently picturesque and beautiful,
overlooking the creek for a long distance either way. The work of
building advanced so rapidly that mass could be said in it late in the fall
of the same year, and its dedication took place with solemn ceremonies.
It was attended as a mission from St. Joseph’s until August, 1887, under
the pastorate of the Rev. James Dougherty, but then Wilbur was erected
into a separate mission under the care of the Rev. Wm. J. Boddy, with
Eddyville as a mission. Pie was a convert to the Catholic Church, and
had been ordained to the priesthood at St. Joseph’s Seminary on December
22nd, 1876. His health was not strong, and he died at Wilbur on June
4th, 1890. He was succeeded by the Rev. Michael J. Feely, whose ill
health required him to resign early in January of 1892 ; he is chaplain at
the House of the Good Shepherd in New York. The Rev. Daniel P. Ward
was appointed pastor of Wilbur in January, 1892. A native of New York,
he was ordained to the priesthood in St. Joseph’s Seminary, Troy, on De-
cember 22nd, 1877. For a short time he was assistant at St. Columba’s
New York, then St. Patrick’s, Newburg, and for more than ten years at
St. Bridget’s, New York. His pastorate continued till his death in Wilbur
on January 12th, 1901. The Rev. Hugh Cullum, ordained in December,
1886, and transferred from the pastorate of Barrytown, did excellent work
in his three years, both in renovating the two churches in Wilbur and
Eddyville, and in reducing the debt. At present the genial Father Michael
Cunniff, ordained in May, 1891, is the active pastor, as far as the decreas-
ing population permits activity. Since his ordination he had been assistant
at St. Monica’s, New York, to the Rev. James Dougherty. On Father
Cullum’s transfer to Suffern, Father Cunniff received his appointment to
Wilbur on June i6th, 1904. Since then he has reduced the debt on the
two churches, so that now it is almost insignificant, and he has been
able to renovate the rectory.

PORT EWEN, ESOPUS TOWNSHIP.

The Rev. M. C. O’Farrell, pastor of St. Mary’s, Rondout, had in 1873,
promoted the erection of a church in Port Ewen, for the large number
of boatmen who had fixed their residence on the other side of Rondout

THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH.

449

Creek. The new mission was in this year separated from Rondout and
placed in charge of the Rev. Michael Phelan. There were given by
Father O’Farrell, as donations and collections, $3,151, for the Church
of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin, a handsome brick edifice,
having a pleasant location overlooking the Hudson. It was dedicated
by Archbishop McCloskey on June 14th, 1874. Father Phelan had been
ordained at St. Joseph’s Seminary, Troy, on June 3rd, 1871. He was
afterward pastor of St. Mary’s, Newburg, and at present of St. Cecilia’s,
New York. His successor at Port Ewen, in 1875, was the Rev. Wm. F.
Brady, who had been ordained at the Troy Seminary in November, 1869.
His pastorate was of two years, and he was succeeded by the Rev.
Thomas O’Hanlon in 1877, though ordained only the June of the pre-
ceding year at Troy. He also built and kept charge of the Church of
the Sacred Heart at Eddyville. He died in 1883, and his remains were
interred in front of the church in Port Ewen. His successor was the
Rev. Philip Ahern, ordained at the Troy Seminary in May, 1877, who
started the mission at Esopus, and about 1889, as a consequence, the
Eddyville church was united to Wilbur. Father Ahern, in 1892, was
sent to Cornwall, and later was Chaplain at the Home of the Good
Shepherd, where he died in 1904.

Revs. Eugene Smith and Thomas, twins, successively were pastors at
Port Ewen, from 1892 till 1899; both suffered from ill health, and died
at Mt. Hope in Baltimore. The present pastor, the Rev. Leo C. Beaudet,
is a Canadian by birth, but was ordained at the Provincial Seminary of
St. Joseph at Troy, on December 17th, 1887, and was for many years
assistant at St. Joseph’s, in New York. The stoppage of the Hudson and
Delaware Canal and other consequent industries has decreased the popu-
lation of the parish considerably. Port Ewen, once thriving, has become a
poor and difficult mission, yet Father Beaudet had the courage to erect
a convenient hall for social gatherings.

EAST KINGSTON, ULSTER TOWNSHIP.

A minor offshoot of Rondout, sprouting at the same time as Port Ewen,
is the mission of East Kingston, formerly known as Flatbush, where a
small brick church was built by the efforts of Rev. M. C. O’Farrell in
1873, at a cost of $2,500. Father Coyle had begun to take an earnest in-
terest in the welfare of its Catholic people as early as 1871. Since then the

450

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

priests of Rondout had celebrated mass there on Sundays to 1890, when
Rev. Dr. Burtsell came to Rondout. He, finding that the congregation
had considerably increased, had at a cost of $2,000 a large addition put
to the Church of St. Colman in 1891, and the now fairly extensive building
was dedicated anew by Bishop Conroy, of Curium, formerly of Albany,
the people having been so in earnest that it was out of debt for the occa-
sion. Since 1890, whenever there was a mission at St. Mary’s, about
ever>" three years, some of the missionaries stayed several days at East
Kingston, to give the people the same aid as was given to the Rondouters.
About 1900 a large number of Italians began to work in the brickyards in
the neighborhood and not a few Italian families settled along the shore.
For the benefit of these Dr. Burtsell called several Italian priests to give
them due religious instruction with no little success. The church customs
in the United States are very different from those to which they were
accustomed in Italy, where religion sustained by donations of former
generations is to the present as free as water, no demand ever being
made for the support of religion. Hence, they find it difficult to realize
why they should be called upon here for the erection and support of
churches. As this becomes impressed upon them they are inclined to
do what is necessary. As they are a people of more demonstrative habits,
perhaps even more artistic than the Catholics found here, they are sur-
prised at the lack of outward show, of processions, of statuary, and they
need to be convinced of the reasons of the differences, which is the more
difficult because of their previous absence of knowledge of any other
world than their own small home villages. The immigrations on a vast
scale, always involve emancipation from family ties, and moral environ-
ments, especially for }^oung and unmarried men, who are liable to think
that the land of liberty opens the way to license and consequent relaxa-
tion of religious restraints. The present pastor. Rev. Robert A. Weir,
finds it difficult to provide for their spiritual needs at East Kingston,
because of his lack of knowledge of their language and characteristics.
In July, 1904, St. Colman’s was erected into a separate parish, entirely
free from debt. To erect a pastoral residence. Father Weir purchased a
lot near the church and placed a mortgage of $6,000 on the church
property.

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451

ELLENVILLE.

From 1828 to 1840 several Catholic families, attracted by the building
of the Delaware and Hudson Canal, had settled in Ellenville and neigh-
borhood. The Rev. Father Gilbride, who had been at Saugerties, is
known to have paid visits there in 1844, celebrating mass at the residence
of Michael Sheridan for several years. In 1842, the Rev. Edward
Briody, educated in Montreal, was ordained by Bishop Hughes and
appointed to the charge of Port Jervis, and other places within reach.
Following the canal. Father Briody reached Ellenville, where under his
management the old meeting house of the Reformed Church was pur-
chased and removed to its present site, repaired and fitted up for Catholic
service. This was done at an expense of $3,500. This building is still
retained looking fairly neat. Father Briody was kept very busy by the
large extent of territory attached to Port Jervis, where he also built a
fairly large church. He had under his charge, in 1851, Port Jervis and
Ellenville, Bridgeville, Fallsburgh, Mongaup Valley, Forestburgh, Calli-
coon. Liberty, Neversink, Claraville, Grahamsville, Monticello, Parkville
and Lackawack. Father Callan had care of Ellenville for a few months,
and then, in 1852, the Rev. Daniel Mugan, educated at Mt. St. Mary's,
Emittsburgh, and ordained in August, 1856, by Archbishop Hughes, took
charge of Ellenville with Liberty and Wurtsboro as missions. He had
been stationed at St. Peter’s, New York, for a year, and his pastorate at
Ellenville of nineteen years continued till his death in 1872. He had his
residence near the church. Plis work was successful, though wearisome.
Access was so difficult to Ellenville that the notification of his last illness
did not reach any priest in time to administer to him the last Sacraments.

He was succeeded by the Rev. Peter J. Prendergrast, who had within
two years come from Ireland. He was assistant for six months at St.
Patrick’s, Newburg, and another six months at the Church of the
Epiphany, New York. He worked earnestly for three years at Ellenville,
and then was transferred, in 1875, Middletown, in 1888, to Rondout,
and in 1890 to the Church of the Epiphany, New York, where for a
variety of reasons he felt uncomfortable, regretting having given up the
country parish of Middletown, where he had done his best work, and
where his remains were taken for interment. The Rev. James F. Wester-
man succeeded him in Ellenville for a year, and in 1876, the Rev. Bernard
A. Goodwin, who had been ordained in June, 1871, became pastor, re-

452

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

maining there fully ten years. The Rev. Joseph H. Hayne became pastor
in 1887, who worked indefatigably till he had placed the parish in good
shape. His successor, in 1894, was the Rev. John Weir, for seven years,
who attended Mountaindale and Lackawack, Liberty and Wurtsboro,
having been made for many years independent missions.

The present pastor. Rev. Michael Montgomery, ordained at the Troy
Seminary m 1875, ^)een assistant at St. Columba’s, New York, and
pastor of West Hurley. In 1903 a dam above the village burst, and there
was quite an inundation, apparently on the verge of carrying away St.
Mary’s Church, when providentially a floating barn was thrown against
a tree in the rear. This diverted the waters from the church, which thus
escaped sure destruction.

MILTON AND MARLBOROUGH.

The pastors of St. Peter’s, Poughkeepsie, from an early day, gave
attention to the scattered Catholics along the banks of the Hudson River,
from Saugerties to Marlborough, and probably through Highland to the
interior, as far as Rosendale, though later the Rondout Valley was found
more accessible for this. As early as 1842, the Rev. John N. Smith, and
again in 1844, the Rev. Joseph Burke, then at Poughkeepsie, had pene-
trated to Rosendale. Their successors. Father Reardon, Rev. Dr. P. F.
McSweeney and Father Nilan, kept up the good work by the assiduous
administration of the sacraments to all who called for them, though in
1868, the Rev. Patrick Brady pastor of Rosendale, had in charge Modena,
Milton, Esopus and Gales ville.

The Rev. James Mee, in 1880, was the first resident pastor of Milton
and Marlborough. He had been ordained to the priesthood at the Troy
Seminary in June, 1870. He built a neat frame church in Milton, with
an adjoining residence. At Marlborough he purchased a Methodist
meeting house, which he turned into a church. He celebrated mass every
Sunday in both places. He also attended Ireland Comers, better known
as Gardiner, where in 1882 ground was secured and plans made for a
church. In 1884, this was made a separate mission, with Wallkill and
New Paltz attached, under the care of an English priest, the Rev. Charles
Browne. The Church of St. Charles Borromeo was dedicated at Gardiner.
In 1886, the Rev. Joseph L. Hoey, ordained in 1877, who had for seven
years been an active assistant at Rondout, was made pastor of Gardiner,

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453

and on the transfer in 1887 of Father Mee to Rosebank, Staten Island,
was appointed to the pastorate of Milton, with charge of Marlborough,
Gardiner and New Paltz. In 1889 a church was built at Roseton, under
the title of Our Lady of Lourdes, by the generosity of Mr. and Mrs.
Vatable, and was placed under the care of the pastor of Milton. This en-^
tailed speedily a new division of these missions. The Rev. W. P..
Kenny was given charge in 1894 of Milton, Marlborough and Roseton,.
till 1897, when he was succeeded by the Rev. E. J. A. Kenny, who, or-
dained in Rome, had been an assistant at St. Gabriers, in New York. He
soon (in 1900) found it convenient for the better care of the people to
remove to Marlborough and Roseton, and give the opportunity for the
appointment to Milton of the Rev. James P. Dooley, with charge of
Highland. Here he built a church, under the title of St. Augustine.

GARDINER AND NEW PALTZ.

Meanwhile, in 1892, the Rev. Bernard Duffy had taken charge of
Gardiner and New Paltz. Here he was succeeded by the Rev. John B.
McGrath, ordained at St. Sulpice in Paris. He in 1894, especially in view
of the many Catholics studying at the Normal College, built the Church
of St. Joseph in New Paltz. When appointed to the parish of City Island,
he was succeeded in 1899 by the Rev. John J. Morris, who since his ordi-
nation, in 1877, had been assistant at St. Joseph’s, New York. An inter-
esting feature of his pastorate was the advent to the Normal College at
New Paltz of about thirty Cuban lady teachers, who had been invited
by the United States Government to prepare themselves better for their
calling by the training in American methods of education, that they might
adapt them to their schools in Cuba. These teachers gave clear
evidence of their practical catholicity by their assiduous attendance at all
the services of St. Joseph’s Church in New Paltz. Father Morris also on
several occasions procured for them the services of a priest familiar with
Spanish. In 1905 he was transferred to the larger field of Port Jervis, and
the present pastor of Gardiner is the Rev. Wm. J. Stewart, who in a
short time has by his energy considerably reduced the indebtedness of the
mission and made important improvements.

GERMAN CATHOLICS IN ULSTER COUNTY. — ELLENVILLE.

The Very Rev. John Raffeiner, a German priest of great zeal, was
recognized as the Apostle of German Catholics in the East. He was

454

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

from the Diocese of Brixia, in the Tyrol, and came to the United States in
1833. This is the eulogy which Archbishop Hughes made of him at his
funeral: “Many of you have no recollection of the spiritual destitution
that prevailed in New York when the now populous Dioceses (1862) of
Brooklyn, New York, Buffalo, Albany and Newark, were comprised in
one. The German Catholics were then but few and totally devoid of
spiritual aid. It was the good providence of God that at this particular
period (1834) directed the steps of Father Raffeiner hither, where he
entered most faithfully and earnestly on the work assigned him in supply-
ing spiritual comfort to his needy countrymen.”

Wherever there were German Catholics there would Father Raffeiner
seek them out, and minister to them, being prevented neither by the win-
ter's snows, the summer's sun, nor the inconvenience of travel in that day,
from fulfilling the duties assigned him. He was appointed Vicar-General
for the Germans by Bishop DuBois, and continued in the position by
Bishop Hughes. Among the many places visited by him, Ellenville was
one of the most difficult of access; yet he undertook the formation of
a congregation there in 1850, and was able to assign to it a pastor in the
person of Rev. John Raufeisen, educated in St. Joseph's, Fordham, and
ordained on October 3rd, 1849, ^7 Bishop Hughes. A small frame
structure, at a cost of about $1,200, was built by him, and known as St.
Mary's. He established a church at Ulster Heights, under the invocation
of St. Michael and Wendelinus, and one under title of the Immaculate
Conception at Woodbourne, where quite a number of Bavarians had
settled. Father Raufeisen's pastorate in Ellenville extended until 1861,
though meanwhile his zeal had brought him to visit, in search of German
Catholics in 1850, Rondout, Bridgeville, Calicoon, Fallsburgh, Grahams-
ville, Lackawack, Neversink, North Branch, Otisville, Stephen's Fac-
tories and Woodbourne. He constantly preached at St. Mary's, Rondout,
from 1857 to i860, when he was able to establish a church for the Ger-
mans in Rondout. In i860, a Benedictine, Father Moosmueller, served
the German church in Rondout, but Father Raufeisen, from 1861 until
1878, resided in Rondout, where the needs were much greater, though
he continued to visit Ellenville till it received a new pastor in the person
of Rev. George J. Veith, who attended Ellenville from 1864, though he
resided in Jeffersonville, till he was succeeded by the Rev. Ferdinand Raes,
in 1867. Not till 1871 did Ellenville again have a resident pastor for the

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455

Germans. Then the Rev. Constantine Van Droste was pastor from 1871
to 1873. Again for a year there was no resident pastor, till the coming in
May, 1874, of the Rev. Franz Siegelack, who was succeeded in 1877 by
the Rev. E. Henzel. In 1878, Ellenville and stations for the Germans
were once more attended from Jeffersonville by the Rev. G. Huntman.
Rev. Andrew J. Sauer became resident pastor in 1878, and under his
administration a new church was erected in 1881, under the invocation
of St. Andrew. His pastorate continued till 1891. Father Sauer had
arranged with the public cemetery corporation to set aside a portion for
Catholics to be blessed, a deed to be given when $1,000 had been con-
tributed by Catholics. At each burial the pastor is to pay $5 to the ceme-
tery from which he gets a deed for that grave, and gives a deed to the
family of the deceased. The cemetery is kept in good order.

Rev. William Eckerth was pastor from 1891 to 1897, when Rev. John
S. B^raun, a native of New York, ordained at St. Joseph's, Troy, De-
cember 22nd, 1888, was appointed pastor. Not far from Ellenville is the
Napanoch prison, where Father Braun’s zeal prompted him to go fre-
quently to preach to the prisoners. On these occasions he took his choir
with him. On other occasions he brought his phonograph, which was a
source of great amusement to the prisoners. The piece most encored was
one ‘‘of a negro kicked by a mule.”

Father Braun was very tactful, having to meet at times murmurings
that not rarely occur in German congregations made up from different
states of Germany. The Rev. John Braun was called in 1905 to the
charge of St. Boniface’s, in New York, and was succeeded by the Rev.
Dr. Edward J. Heinlein, who made but a year’s stay, and the present
pastor is the Rev. Theodore J. Bamberg.

ST. Peter’s church, rondout.

In 1850, the Rev. John Raufeisen, immediately after his ordination
being assigned to Ellenville, was also given charge of the Germtan
Catholics at Rondout. The Redemptorist Fathers from the Church of
the Holy Redeemer in New York, paid several visits in the following
years to Rondout. After 1857, and following years. Father Raufeisen
made regular visits to attend to the spiritual needs of his fellow country-
men, and he was welcomed at St. Mary’s, where a collection was regularly
taken to meet his expenses. He purchased a lot on the corner of Adams

456

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

and Pierpont Streets, on which in i860 was erected a fine brick church.
A young Benedictine priest, Father Oswald Moosmueller, was sent from
St. Vincent’s Abbey, at Latrobe, Pennsylvania, to take charge. Though he
remained but one year in Rondout, he always showed great interest in its
welfare till his death, which occurred about 1900. Father Raufeisen con-
cluded that he would do more good for the German Catholics by fixing
his abode in Rondout, which he did in 1861, and then he continued to
look after the German Catholics throughout the County of Ulster, and
began to attend them at Plattekill. The desire of the Germans to have
a school prompted him to erect, in 1871, the fine church on the corner of
Wurts and Pierpont Streets, which under the invocation of St. Peter, was
dedicated by Archbishop McCloskey on the Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul,
June 29th, 1873. Oswald Moosmueller was interested in the new

church, and had sent a Benedictine Brother, an artist, to make the altar in
St. Peter’s a facsimile of that of the Benedictine Chapel at Latrobe. The
former church was turned into a school, which was placed for ten years
in charge of German Sisters of Charity from Mt. St. Vincent. They were
succeeded by others of the order, known as Sisters of Christian Charity.
Father Rajufeisen for twenty years remained ^'pasltor till 1878. He
died in May, 1880, as Chaplain of a hospital in Jersey City. He was
succeeded by the Rev. Franz Siegelack, who had been for some years
pastor at Ellenville. He in turn was succeeded in 1887 by the present
pastor. Rev. M. Kuhnen, who was ordained at St. Joseph’s Seminary,
Troy, in December, 1877, ^^6 been pastor at Blauvelt. Father

Kuhnen purchased the residence for the Sisters in the rear of the church.
He also started the German cemetery, near the Wiltwyck Cemetery. The
German Catholic congregation numbers about 1,500 souls. The debt on
the church property is about $30,000.

POLISH CATHOLICS IN RONDOUT.

In 1893, Archbishop Corrigan appointed the Rev. Francis Fremel to
start a church for the Polish Catholics of Rondout. Father Fremel was
a Lithuanian Pole, who had been ordained in December, 1890, and after
some months passed in New York, had been made assistant to Father
Kuhnen at St. Peter’s Church, which the Polish Catholics had been
accustomed to attend, as many of them know or understand German. A
discarded synagogue in Abeel Street was used for a church for some

THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH.

457

years, and property secured in North Rondout. Dissensions, not unusual
among the Poles, occurred, perhaps because those not Lithuanians did
not consider themselves duly considered, and Father Fremel, really a
zealous but not diplomatic man, retired, and the present pastor, Rev,
Francis Fabian, was appointed to direct the spiritual interests of the Poles.
He worked so well that in the fall of 1899, the corner-stone was laid of
a church in a very eligible part of the town. The Poles co-operated
earnestly, and there are now a fine church and rectory. There are about
350 Polish Catholics in the vicinity of Kingston.

CATHOLIC INSTITUTIONS IN ULSTER COUNTY.

JESUITS" NOVITIATE — HOME FOR ITALIAN CHILDREN — BENEDICTINE SANI-
TARIUM.

The English Jesuits had come to Maryland under the wing of Lord
Baltimore about 1632, and again through James Duke of York some
English Jesuits came to New York about 1685 to Governor Dongan;
these affiliated with those of the Maryland Province, and retired there in
1700, when the law was enacted condemning “Polish priests and Jesuits’"
to perpetual imprisonment if found in the province of New York. Yet
there are evidences that some of the Jesuits did continue now and again
to come to New York, even before that law was repealed. Thus we saw
Father Farmer saying mass in New York in 1781-82, even during the
British occupation. However, the Jesuits of New York had from an

early day been under the jurisdiction of the French Province of A

through the sub-province of Canada. From Canada had come the mis-
sionaries to the various Indian tribes which inhabited New York. Hence
though the Jesuits who first were called by Archbishop Hughes to New
York in 1846, were from Kentucky, there was speedily formed a direct
union with Canada, whither American young men wishing to join their
community went for their novitiate and studies.

About 1870, the Jesuits of New York obtained a special arrangement
whereby there was opened a novitiate near West Park in Ulster County,
under the name of Mauresa. A Novitiate for the Jesuits is similar to
that of the other Religious Orders in the Catholic Church, that is, a
course of probation of candidates for their community. The Jesuits have
a special advantage through their colleges of picking out the best and
cleverest young men who give signs of a disposition for the Religious

458

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

life. But this is not enough — they must be tried especially in that rule
of obedience to their superiors, which is made such an important charac-
teristic of their society. It is easily understood that this obedience im-
plies giving up the exercise of their own will in those things which are of
themselves lawful. It would be absurd in the name of Religion to claim
obedience to commands in any degree contrary to the law of nature, of
God or of the Church of Christ. The obedience to their superiors in all
things else is regulated by the clear written constitution of the Order
which is placed in their hands, and may be easily obtained by any one
else. A special feature of the Jesuits’ Novitiate is to rest from their direct
studies and give themselves wholly for two years to< the study of the
spiritual life as laid down by their founder, St. Ignatius of Loyola. During
this novitiate they are obliged to give themselves up to the menial duties
of life, even to take part in cooking and other tasks of the kitchen, the
scouring of rooms. No one of whatever rank he may have been, is exempt
from this kind of humiliation.

This Novitiate remained till the New York Province was united with
the Maryland Province, when it was removed to Frederick, Md. Lately
the Jesuits have brought back their novitiate even on a much larger scale
to Dutchess County, between Hyde Park and Poughkeepsie. They sold
their place at West Park to the missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart,
who came from Italy to take care of Italian waifs, and orphans, and to do
other good works in behalf of their country people. They have branched
out to the care of others also. In West Park their institution houses a
dozen Sisters and about loo children, especially from New York City, who
receive thorough care and a fair education.

An important work undertaken by other Sisters, known as the Order
of St. Benedict, is the excellent sanitarium in the City of Kingston, which
has been the means of relieving great suffering and distress among the
sick of Ulster and neighboring counties. Its official title is “Our Lady of
Victory Sanitarium,” but is more easily designated the Benedictine Sani-
tarium. Its erection is due to the earnestness of a native of Rondout, a
Miss Molloy, known in the sisterhood as Sister Aloysia. First established
in two private houses on the summit of West Chestnut Street, it is now
in a most eligible site towards the centre of the city, upon a hill whence
there is a delightful view of all the surrounding country. The sick of all
denominations find it a most healthful and hospitable resort.

THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.

459

CHAPTER XXXVII.

THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.

By Rev. Charles G. Ellis, D.D.

PRESBYTERIANISM in its growth and influence in Ulster County
can only be understood when we consider with it the growth and
influence of the Dutch Reformed Church. For while differing in
name they are practically one in the essentials of policy and theological
standards. The Dutch Reformed is in reality the Dutch Presbyterian
Church. The Presbyterian Church in the United States of America being
that part of the Presbyterian Church in which the English, Scotch and
North of Ireland people predominate. Since the early settlers in Ulster
were Dutch, their’s was the prevailing type, and, in the interior of the
county, is still the only type of Presbyterianism. The documentary
records of those years which immediately followed the revocation of the
edict of Nantes show how kindly the French Presbyterians, commonly
known as Huguenots, who settled in Kingston and vicinity, were wel-
comed, with what assiduity they were instructed in Dutch, and how readily
they were received into the Dutch church. Early records also show that
the Dutch governors, in their reports on the state of religion in the colony,
held the Independents and Presbyterians from New England who settled
in New Amsterdam, in high esteem.

The Presbyterian Church as it is known in Ulster County to-day is the
outgrowth of those later immigrations of English speaking peoples which
took place in the eighteenth and first half of the nineteenth centuries. It
is the history of a denomination cognate with the Dutch Church, supple-
menting its work, and not of a rival crowding into a field already occupied.

During the fifty years immediately preceding the Revolution, many
Presbyterians and Independents from Long Island and New England, as
well as others from the old countries, settled in Southeastern Ulster
and along the shores of the Hudson. The opening of the Delav are and
Hudson Canal, and the development of the blue stone and cement indus-
tries in the early part of the nineteenth century brought to the upper part

460

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

of the county many more immigrants, particularly numbers of Presby-
terian Scotch and Irish. The result was that where the ground was not
already fully occupied by the Dutch Church, the newer congregations
organized were Presbyterian.

The Presbyterian Church of Marlborough, the first church organized
in the town and the first Presbyterian Church organized in the County,
was established January ist, 1764. The first entry on its records reads,
“A register of the proceedings of Stephen Case and John Woolsey, first
trustees of the Marlborough Society and of their successors begun the
first day of January, 1764.'’ The subscription for building a, house of
worship is dated the 8th day of August, 1763, and reads, “We the sub-
scribers for an encouragement towards building a meeting house for wor-
ship of God near the old Man’s Creek in Ulster County, to be founded on
the Presbyterian formation of government of the Kirk of Scotland, do
promise for ourselves and assigns to pay on demand the following sums
annexed to our names, to those who are trustees of said building, provided
that Lewis Dubois does give two acres of land to remain for that use for-
ever.” This subscription has the signatures of fifty-one names in sums
from 15 pounds to 4 shillings. The condition upon which the land was
deeded was that the society “do from this time and at all times forever
hereafter call, choose, appoint and settle a minister of the gospel whose
principles shall be to maintain and fulfil and keep the articles of the Kirk
of Scotland agreeable to their confession of faith.”

The building erected the ensuing summer, at a cost of about 117 pounds,
was thirty-five by twenty-five feet in dimensions, and remained in use
through successive alterations and enlargements until destroyed by fire
in 1869, when the present commodious brick structure was erected at a
cost of $33,000.

The first sermon was preached in the church by Rev. Charles Jeffrey
Smith of Long Island on the 26th of August, 1764. For nearly ten years
the church was more or less regularly supplied with preaching,
though no regular ecclesiastical organization had as yet been formed.
“The Lord’s Supper” was first administered April 23d, 1775, when six
communicants participated in the rite. The sacrament of Baptism had
already been administered to about thirty infants. Samson Occoni, the
celebrated Indian preacher, baptized two children here January 22nd,
1775. For ten years following this date, because of the unsettled condition

THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.

461

arising from the Revolutionary War, the church was without a settled
preacher, and was from time to time supplied by such Presbyterian and
Reformed clergymen as they could secure in the neighborhood. Marl-
borough, being the resort of an unusual number of Whigs, felt those
stormy days more than many other places.

Taking advantage of a statute passed in 1784, the congregation met
April 8th, 1785, to elect trustees and take steps toward incorporation. The
certificate of corporation being filed June 27th, 1785. From 1792, for
a number of years, the church was supplied by a Congre-
gational minister, as the congregation had become independent. Though
the whole number admitted to membership up to 1808 was but 71, 53
of whom being still on the list, the church was exceedingly influential
in all that region, and numbered a host of adherents not communicants.

Wearied and discouraged by the difficulties attending their independent
condition, in 1809 they turned again to the Presbyterian Church and
secured Rev. James I. Ostrom as supply. In 1810 the church was taken
under the care of the Presbytery of Hudson, which thereupon licensed
Mr. Ostrom and installed him as pastor. The advent of Mr. Ostrom
evidently meant much for Presbyterianism in Ulster County, as his name
is associated with the organization and supply of the majority of its
churches. His woric at Marlborough was signalized at once by what the
chronicler describes as a “special season of divine influences,” which
began in October, 1811, and continued until the following spring, adding
to the church 115 members. It was remarkable, and commented on at the
time as a peculiar manifestation of divine sovereignty, that though Mr.
Ostrom preached also at the Paltz during this awakening, there was no
special interest aroused in that place.

About the middle of 1820 the church was visited with another awak-
ening when 150 were added, 90 in a single day, of whom 60 had not
before been baptized. This Marlborough Church has experienced a num-
ber of revivals. In 1830, when more than 40 members were received ; and
in 1832, when 40 more were added. Again in 1839, there was an acces-
sion of 40, and about 100 in i860, and during the past year another
gracious awakening has taken place.

In 1839 the church took its place with the New School body, but in
1841 there was a division. Those who sympathized most strongly with
the New School withdrew and organized the church of Milton, while the

462

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

remainder reunited themselves with the Old School Presbytery of North
River. In 1861 eighteen members withdrew to form the church of
Middle Hope.

The church of Marlborough is now one of the strongest in the
Presbytery and is splendidly manned and equipped. The property
consists of a large and attractive brick edifice and a modern commodious
manse, the whole beautifully and conveniently situated in the midst of
ample grounds in the village of Marlborough. The pastor is the Rev.
William Coombe.

The second Presbyterian church organized in Ulster County is the
flourishing congregation of Lloyd at Highland, formerly New Paltz
Landing. The organization was effected in 1808 through the efforts of
Rev. James I. Ostrom of Marlborough. A building was erected at once,
to be superseded by a larger structure in 1840, which was in turn rebuilt
in 1871, and has been recently repaired and redecorated. The pastor is the
Rev. George Allen.

Another church organized by the Rev. Jas. I. Ostrom, was that of
Plattekill, of Pleasant Valley West. When organized, April 12th, 1814, it
had only four members, two of whom were elected elders. For many years
the church made little progress. In 1834, as a result of protracted meet-
ings conducted by Rev. Leonard Johnson of Marlborough, and Rev. Isaac
Beach of New Paltz, nearly 20 were added to the church, when the
membership reached the number of 58. A building was erected in 1838.
The church had only one settled pastor, and no regular supply after 1848,
yet it did not cease to exist as an organization until 1868, a testimony to
the staying powers of a Presbyterian church even when injudiciously
placed.

Next in the order of time, and the strongest Presbyterian Church in the
County, is the Rondout Church, of Kingston. Two young men, George
W. Endicott, from near Salem, Mass., and Walter B. Crane of South
East, Putnam County, N. Y., kneeling together in an upper chamber of
the old Mansion House, to dedicate themselves to the work of the Great
Master, conceived the purpose of rearing a church in Rondout.
The plan was talked over with others, particularly with Richard Bolton,
Benjamin J. Seward and Maurice Wurts. The outcome was a Sabbath
School, organized in 1829 ; held first in a boarding house in Ferry street,
then in the stone farm house of Abram Hasbrouck, next in the school

THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 463

house on the rocks near Abeel street, and finally in the basement of the
incomplete Presbyterian Church.

The Rev. John Mason came from New York and preached in the school
the third Sunday of June, 1833. He was invited to remain and organize
the people into a religious society, which he did. A Congregational
meeting was called July 9th, 1833, at which Maurice Wurts presided.
The organization was effected and seven men were elected trustees and
appointed as a building committee. Just five weeks later they signed
articles of agreement for the erection of a suitable building for a Presby-
terian Church. Its dimensions were 56 by 40 and twenty-five feet posts,
which, with the exception of the tower, afterward added, was com-
pleted at a cost of $5,000, and dedicated June 19th, 1834. The church
was formally organized under the Presbyterian form of government
with sixteen members, November ist, 1833, and the Rev. John Mason
was ordained and installed as pastor November 13th, 1833. During the
pastorate of the Rev. Benjamin T. Phillips, from 1847 1861, the

village grew with great rapidity, and under his successful leadership
the church increased in numbers and spiritual strength. A manse was
erected and the church was enlarged and beautified. Under the pastorate
of Dr. William Irwin, 1862-7 and Dr. Edward D. Ledyard from 1867
to 1874, the church still increasing in strength, it was decided to erect
a new and more modern house of worship. Thus the corner stone of the
present structure was laid June 4th, 1873, and in April, 1874, the church
was occupied for divine worship ; the cost of the church and furnishings
being over $60,000.

This, the mother of Protestant churches in Rondout, is now one
of the strongest in the county. It has a membership of nearly 500.
Its property consists of a fine large auditorium, a beautiful chapel, and a
modern and commodious manse. The present pastor is the Rev. Charles
G. Ellis.

The First Presbyterian Church of Malden was incorporated February
17th, 1834. The building and manse were erected before 1833. A chapel
was added in later years. During the prosperous days of the bluestone
business at Malden this church did excellent work. The decay of business
with the consequent loss of population, and the disappearance of old
families has rendered the church now nearly extinct.

The Presbyterian Church at Milton was organized July 12th, 1841, and

464

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

was incorporated August 23d of the same year, the Rev. Jas. I. Ostrom
assisting in its organization. The limitations of the field have circum-
scribed the growth of the church; nevertheless, there has been developed
a thrifty congregation. A tasteful modern building has been erected, and
the church is prospering under the ministry of the Rev. Wm. Hogarth
Tower.

The First Presbyterian Church of Kingston was organized by the
Presbytery of North River in the Kingston Court House, December 12th,
1853, and was incorporated January 4th, 1854. Twenty-seven persons
constituted its original membership, of whom all but two had been mem-
bers of the Second Reformed Church of Kingston. The first house of
worship, which was situated at the corner of Clinton avenue and Maiden
lane, was dedicated April 17th, 1855. It was destroyed by fire October
1 2th, 1875. For a time the congregation worshipped in a tabernacle on
Elmendorf street. The present building at the corner of Elmendorf street
and Tremper avenue was dedicated February 24th, 1885. The location
of this church, in a growing section of the city, promises, under the
capable leadership of the Rev. R. C. Dodds, D.D., an increasingly pros-
perous future.

It is not likely that there will be more Presbyterian churches organized
in Ulster County, but it is possible that the present movement toward the
union of Presbyterianism will, in the not distant future, include the Re-
formed and Presbyterian churches in one denomination.

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THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH.

465

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH.

By Rev. Charles Mercer Hall, M.A.,

(“Z believe one Catholic and Apostolic Church." — Nicene Creed.)

The Episcopal Church is the ancient Catholic Church of the English-
speaking people, more often known as the Anglican Communion.
In the summer of A. D. 1579, when Admiral Sir Francis Drake
was circumnavigating the globe in the '‘Golden Hind,’’ the first Prayer
Book service on the Pacific Coast was held at Point Reye’s Head in
Drake’s Bay. On August 13, 1587, at Raleigh’s colony at Roanoke, Va.,
occurred the baptism of the Indian chieftain Manteo; and the Sunday
following that of Virginia Dare, "the first Christian born in Virginia.”
On Sunday, June 21, 1607, the Holy Communion was first celebrated in
English, at Jamestown, Virginia. At Fort St. George in Maine, thirteen
years before the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers on Plymouth Rock the
services of the Church were begun in New England. Owing to
the connection between Church and State and the events connected
with 1776, the securing of the episcopate for the American Church
was a difficult matter, but on November 14, 1784, at Aberdeen, Scotland,
the Rev. Samuel Seabury, D.D., Oxon., was consecrated the first Ameri-
can Catholic bishop by the bishops of the Catholic remainder of the
Church of Scotland — just six years before the Rev. Dr. John Carroll was
(irregularly) consecrated first Roman Catholic Bishop of Baltimore, in
the private chapel of Lullworth Castle, Dorsetshire, England, by Dr.
Charles Walmesly, titular Bishop of Rama and senior vicar-apostolic of
the Roman mission in England.

On February 4, 1787, at the chapel of Lambeth Palace, the London
residence of the Archbishops of Canterbury, Dr. Samuel Provoost was
duly consecrated by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, and the
Bishops of Bath and Wells, and Peterborough, as first Bishop of New
York. Bishop Provoost died September 6, 1815, and has been succeeded

466

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

by The Rt. Rev. Benjamin Moore, D.D., 1801-1816, The Rt. Rev. John
Henry Hobart, D.D., 1811-1830, the Rt. Rev. Benj. T. Onderdonk, D.D.,
1830-1861, The Rt. Rev. Jonathan M. Wainwright, 1852-1854, The Rt.
Rev. Horatio Potter, D.D., 1854-1887, The Rt. Rev. Henry C. Potter,
D.D., consecrated in 1883, and The Rt. Rev. David H. Greer, D.D., (co-
adjutor), consecrated in 1904.

Trinity Church, Saugerties, was built during the year 1831, and the
parochial organization was effected the same year. A rectory was built
in 1831, but was replaced with a more commodious building in 1884. A
Sunday-school building was erected in 1875. The succession of rectors
has been as follows: Rev. Reuben Sherwood, 1831-1835; Rev. Cicero S.
Hawks, 1835-1837; Rev. Ravaud Kearney, 1837-1838; Rev. Hiram
Adams, 1838-1848; Rev. Edwin A. Nichols, 1848-1856; Rev. Wm.. J.
Lynd, 1856-1859; Rev. John J. Robertson, 1859-1880; Rev. Thomas Cole,
1880.

St. John’s Church, Kingston, was incorporated August 6, 1832,
after several years’ services held, first in private houses in Rondout and in
the Court House, Kingston, by the Rector of Trinity Church, Ulster
(Saugerties). The first rector was the Rev. Reuben Sherwood, also
rector of Trinity, Ulster, and under his care bi-weekly services were held.
The first wardens were, William Kerr, of Kingston, and John Adams, of
Rondout. In 1833 a lot was purchased; and Confirmation was adminis-
tered by Bishop Onderdonk. November 24, 1835, the church was con-
secrated by Bishop Onderdonk. In 1849 the Church of the Holy Spirit,
Rondout, was organized, 42 communicants being set off for it, leaving 30
for the mother parish. From 1854 to i860 on petition, this new parish,
which had no rector, was served on Sunday afternoons by the rector of
St. John’s. In i860 St. John’s was considerably enlarged, and in 1870
the rectory was purchased. In 1898 the Parish House was erected. The
several rectors have been: 1832-1835, Rev. Reuben Sherwood; 1835-1839,
Rev. John Downey; 1839-1840, Rev. Henry M. Davis; 1841-1844, Rev.
William A. Curtis; 1844-1849, Rev. George Sayres; 1849-1869, Rev.
George Waters, D.D. ; 1869-1873, Rev. F. Marion McAllister, D.D. ;
1873-1874, Rev. Walter Delafield, D.D. ; 1875-1885, Rev. C. William
Camp; 1886-1895, Rev. Lewis T. Wattson; 1896-1897, Rev. John Henry

THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 467

Wattson; 1897-1898, Rev. Edgar Gardner Murphy; 1899, Rev. Octavius
Applegate, Jr., M. A.

About the year 1701 the Rev. Mr. Hepburn, priest of the Church of
England, was, on a vacancy in the Dutch Church of Kingston, forced
into that cure by the Governor, Lord Cornbury, but his tenure was of
brief duration. ,

Christ Church, Marlborough. This was the third church organized
in Ulster County. The first service was held in the school house, February
12, 1837. organization was effected February 27, 1837, and in the
September following, the new parish was admitted to the convention. The
church, erected on land donated by Dennis H. Doyle, was consecrated by
Bishop Onderdonk, September 10, 1839. On December 27, 1857, the
building was burned to the ground. On May 10, 1858, the foundation of
the new church, after designs by Richard M. Upjohn, the noted architect,
was begun. The new edifice was consecrated by Bishop Horatio Potter,
October 26, 1858. A rectory, erected on ground donated by Mrs. Hester
Doyle, was completed in October, 1863. The rectors of this parish have
been: Rev. Robert Shaw, 1837; Rev. Geo. W. Fash, 1840; Rev. Samuel
Hawksley, 1847; Rev. Samuel M. Ackerley, 1861; Rev. George Waters,
D.D., 1875; Rev. John W. Buckmaster, 1876; Rev. Hugh P. Hobson,
1893; Rev. Charles A. Tibbals, 1899; Rev. Harold Morse, 1903-1906.

All Saints’, Milton, organized in 1850 by the Rev. Samuel Hawks-
ley, has been served by the rectors of Marlborough. The corner stone
was laid May 30, 1854, and the church was consecrated by Bishop Horatio
Potter in October, 1859.

Church of the Ascension, Esopus (West Park Station). This
quaint little country church was admitted into union with the diocese in
the year 1842. The rectory was built in i860. Among a scattered com-
munity of summer residences this parish has done a quiet, almost un-
noticed work. The incumbents have been, the Rev. Philip Berry, Rev.
Wm .T. Smithett, Rev. Richard Temple, Rev. Henry B. Sherman, Rev.
Alexander Capron. The present venerable rector is the Rev. Legh R.
Dickinson.

Church of the Holy Spirit, Kingston (Rondout). The first edifice
for this parish was built by Miss Verplanck in 1845. A parochial organi-
zation was effected in 1849. The present stone church was erected in

468

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

1861 and consecrated in 1863. A rectory adjoining the church was built
a few years later. The clergy serving this parish have been, the Rev.
Wm. T. Smithett, 1849-1854; the Rev. George Waters, D.D., 1854-1861;
the Rev. Richard Temple, 1861; the Rev. A. H. Gesner, 1861-1863; the
Rev. David Margot, 1864-1865 ; the Rev. A. F. Olmstead, D.D., 1865-
1866; the Rev. Foster Ely, D.D., 1867-1870; the Rev. J. B. Murray, 1870-
1875 ; the Rev. A. Sidney Dealey, 1876-1877; the Rev. F. M. S. Taylor,
D.D., 1877-1881 ; the Rev. Francis Washburn, 1882-1892; the Rev.
Charles Josiah Adams, D.D., 1892-1896; the Rev. Thomas Burrows,
1896-1903. The present rector, the Rev. Paul Rogers Fish, entered into
this cure in 1904.

St. Peter’s Church, Stone Ridge, was organized April 13, 1846, as
the Church of the Good Shepherd. The name was changed to St. Peter’s
about i860.

St. John’s Memorial Church, High Falls, was erected in 1885 by
the late Mrs. Richard K. Delafield. The Rev. Ephriam DeGruy became
rector in i860. For several years after his resignation the parish was
served irregularly. The Rev. G. W. West became rector in 1874 and has
been succeeded by the Rev. Alfred E. Johnson, 1875 ; the Rev. C. H.
Tomlins, 1876-1879; the Rev. W. C. Maguire, 1879-1881 ; the Rev. Fran-
cis J. Clayton, 1881-1882; the Rev. George C. Hepburn, 1882; the Rev.
J. J. Rowan Spone, 1883; the Rev. Nelson Ayres, 1884; the Rev. Edward
Ransford, 1885; the Rev. S. B. Rathburn, 1885-1887; the Rev. S. Borden
Smith, 1887-1890; the Rev. W. J. Clarke Agnew is the present incum-
bent, and occupies the rectory at High Falls, where also a parish house
was built in memory of Eliza Bard Delafield, in 1890.

Saint Paul’s Church, Ellenville. The Rev. Samuel Hawksley,
rector of Christ Church, Marlborough, was a true missionary. He trav-
eled on foot, preaching the Gospel at Middle Hope, Milton, Highland,
Stone Ridge and Ellenville, where he held the first services of the Church
in a hall, A. D. 1849. From 1855 to 1865, there was an interim. In October,
1865, the Rev. James E. Kenny was appointed missionary, and services
were again resumed in a hall, on October 7th. On May 8, 1866, ground
given by Mrs. Kniller, of Poughkeepsie, was broken, and on June 27, the
corner stone of Saint Paul’s Church was laid by the missionary-in-charge.

THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH.

469

On August 27 the first service was held. In 1869 the Rev. M. E. Willing
succeeded to the cure and was followed in 1870 by the Rev. Chas. C. Ed-
munds. In 1873 the corner stone of a new edifice, erected by E. C. Hum-
bert, in memory of his son, Cornelius Chandler Humbert, was laid by
Dean Capron of the Western Convocation, and on August 18, 1874, the
church was duly consecrated by Bishop Horatio Potter. The cost of
building and furniture was about $42,000. The Rev. C. C. Edmunds was
succeeded by the Rev. Obadiah Valentine in 1875, and the Rev. C. K.
Capron in 1881. The certificate of incorporation of the parish was filed
July 24, 1884. On September i, 1884, the Rev. Peter Claude Creveling
became rector, resigning in 1889 and leaving behind him a memorial in the
shape of a rectory, erected at a cost of $1,600. The incumbents since then
have been: Rev. W. H. Brown, 1889-1890; Rev. S. H. S. Gallandet, 1890-
1891 ; Rev. Octavius Applegate, Jr., M.A., 1891-1896; Rev. F. N. Strader,
1896-1899; Rev. C. R. D. Crittenten; Rev. Robert H. Locke; Rev. Aug.
Warner Merrick, 1902-1906; Rev. Hugh P. Hobson.

All Saints’, Rosendale. The services of the Church were first held
in this town at Rocklock School, by the Rev. Walter Delafield, D.D., rec-
tor of St. John’s, Kingston. Permanent work was begun by the Rev^
George W. West, prior to 1872, as a layman, and was carried on by him
after his ordination, in 1874, until September 21, 1875. Until 1879
work was carried on by the Rev. Alfred Evan Johnson and the Rev.
William H. Tomlins, rector of the parish at Stone Ridge. The corner
stone of All Saints’ Church was laid in 1876, and the first service in the
new church was held on Easter Day, xA.pril i, 1877. The rectors of Stone
Ridge succeeding were: Rev. Wm. Cuffe Maguire, 1879-1882; Rev. G. G.
Hepburn, 18S2-1883 ; Rev. J. J. Rowan Spong, 1883-1884; Rev. Nelson
Ayers, 1884; Rev. Edward Ransford, 1885-1886; Rev. Scott B. Rathburn,
1886-1887; Rev. S. Borden Smith, 1887-1890.

The church was consecrated Sept. 20, 1885, by the Rt. Rev. H. C.
Potter, Assistant Bishop of New York. The missionaries resident from
1889, were: Rev. Wm. H. Brown, 1889; Rev. Horatio Nelson Traggitt,
1889-1892. The Rev. Henry Barker succeeded, July 31, 1892. The parish
was duly incorporated February 24, 1893, Rtv. Henry Barker

was elected first rector on February 28th of the same year, from which
time he has served the parish with unflagging energy and untiring devo-
tion. Entirely through his personal efforts the chapel of St. Thomas, at

470

THE COUTNTY OF ULSTER.

Rifton, was organized. The corner stone was laid September 9, 1899,
and the chapel was dedicated December 31, 1899. Land adjoining the
church, with a small house, has been purchased. The rector of Rosendale
also maintains a Sunday-school and regular services in a hired house at
Bloomington, near by.

Church of the Holy Trinity, Highland. This parish was organ-
ized in 1872, the corner stone was laid the same year, and the church con-
secrated in 1873. Various priests served this parish until 1885, when the
Rev. Henry Tarrant, D.D., became its first rector. He has been succeeded
by various priests who have served the parish for brief terms of mission-
ary work.

The Mission Church of the Holy Cross, at Clintondale, begun
by the Rt. Rev. Joseph H. Johnson, D.D., now Bishop of Los Angeles,
during his incumbency of Holy Trinity, Highland, was completed through
the efforts of the Rev. Henry Tarrant, and was consecrated November
28, 1885, by Bishop Henry C. Potter.

The Mission Church of the Holy Cross, Kingston, was incorpo-
rated under the Free Church Act, March 22, 1892. The corner stone was
laid on St. James’ Day, July 25, 1891, and on St. Paul’s Day, January 25,
1892, the church edifice was dedicated by the Venerable Wm. Reed
Thomas, D.D., Archdeacon of Orange. The Rev. Lewis T. Watson, B.D.,
then rector of St. John’s Church, was first president of the Board of Trus-
tees and priest-in-charge. It was entirely owing to his missionary zeal and
efforts that this work was started and the church built. The Rev. Charles
Mercer Hall succeeded Father Wattson, and entered upon his duties as
vicar March ii, 1894. An organization under the ordinary diocesan
regulations was effected January ii, 1896, and the present incumbent was
elected first rector of the new parish, and instituted on St. Patrick’s Day,
March 17. The church was enlarged to its present size in 1897. A
parish house was erected, largely through the generosity of the late Mrs.
Wm. B. Fitch and Mr. and Mrs. Ezra Hasbrouck Fitch, and formally
opened May 10, 1899. The rectory adjoining was acquired in 1899.

Occasional services are held at St. Bartholomew’s Chapel, in the Big
Indian Valley, and at the summer Chapel of the Transfiguration at Pine
Hill.

THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH.

471

The churches in Ulster County are in the Archdeaconry of Orange.
The present Archdeacon is the Venerable Wm. Reed Thomas, D.D.,
Rector of the Church of the Holy Innocents, Highland Falls.

The revival of the Monastic Life in this American Catholic Church is
witnessed by the Monastery of the Holy Cross at West Park. The Order
of the Holy Cross was organized and the Rev. James O. S. Hunting-
ton became its first Superior. The members of the Order engage in
the Opus Dei, conduct spiritual retreats, conferences, parochial missions
and other missionary work, in all parts of America and Canada. The
monastery was built for the permanent home of the Order and dedicated
May 19, 1904, by the Right Rev. Cortland Whitehead, D.D., LL.D.,
Bishop of Pittsburgh, acting for the Bishop of New York.

472

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

CHAPTER XXXIX.

THE LUTHERAN CHURCH.

By Rev. Chester H. Traver, D.D.

The Lutheran Church in Ulster County dates from October 4th,
1710, when 786 Palatines landed and settled in three villages,
Elisabethtown, Georgetown and Newtown. The last is what
is now known as West Camp, and perhaps the others were Evesport and
Smith’s Landing. John Christopher Gerlack was listmaster for 146 in
Elisabethtown, while 128 in Georgetown were under Jacob Manck, and
512 in Newtown under Peter Grauberg. As winter was fast approaching
they erected huts as temporary homes, so that they were settled by Nov.
14, and clearing the ground. Their food was provided by Robert Liv-
ingston at East Camp. The agreement was “Each person each day should
receive a quantity of Bread equal to one-third of a Loaf of Bread of such
sort and assize which is commonly at the price of four pence half penny in
the Citty of New York in weight and finenesse according to the assize of
Bread in said city for the time being, and one quart of Beer, such as is
commonly called ships Beer of the Price of Three Pounds for each Tun.”
This bread and beer was to be delivered to them at the manorhouse at
the rate of six pence per diem for adults and four pence for children.
The shelter and food proved insufficient, and March 8, 1711, Lord
Clarendon wrote: “It is a great mistake.” By May i, 1711, they re-

solved not to work at tar-making nor remain upon the tract, but remove
to Scorie, and use force if necessary.

Others will follow the history of their political and social depression and
distribution. We will present briefly their church history as Lutherans.

The first Lutheran Church at West Camp was built in a valley just back
of the river ridge. Their first Pastor was Rev. Joshua Kocherthal, who
came over with them, not as refugees, but as honest citizens ready to
endure for Christ’s sake, who brought their religious convictions with
them, and set up their spiritual altar at once. Pastor Kocherthal served
all, not only in the Hudson Valley, but also in Schoharie County. He

Rev. Chester H. Traver,

THE LUTHERAN CHURCH.

473

lived at West Camp from May, 1711, until he entered into rest December
27, 1719, and was buried under the church. After this was abandoned
the loving hands of his daughters placed a tablet over his grave, where it
remained until 1895, when the Luther League put it in the front wall of
the present church and placed the remains under the same.

The following is a translation of its quaint inscription :

“Know, Traveler, under this stone rests, beside his Sibylla Charlotta, a real
traveler, of the High Dutch in North America, their Joshua, and a pure Lutheran
preacher of the same on the east and west side of the Hudson river. His first
arrival was with Lord Lovelace, in 1709, the first of January. His second with
Colonel Hunter, 1710, the fourteenth of June. The journey of his soul to Heaven,
on St. John’s Day, 1719, interrupted his return to England. Do you wish to know
more? Seek in Melanchthous Fatherland, who was Kocherthal, who Harschias,
who Winchenback. B. Berkenmeyer. S. Huertin. L. Brevort.

MDCCXLIL

B. is Benigna Sibylla Kocherthal, who married Rev. Wm. C. Berkenmyer, Pastor
at Athens, but his pastorate extended from New York to Albany.

S. is Susanna Sibylla Kocherthal, who married William Huertin, goldsmith of
Bergen County, N. ]., and has descendants in the Town of Wallkill.

L. is Louisa Abigail Kocherthal, who married John Brevort, goldsmith, of New
York.

In 1732 the Lutherans of this section helped build the oldest part of the
present Katsbaan Reformed Church. The pastors who for over a cen-
tury served this congregation did not live in this section, but visited
them as opportunity offered. After Pastor Kocherthal we find the
following: Rev. Justus Falckner, 1719-1723; Rev. Daniel Falckner,
1724; Rev. William C. Berkenmeyer, 1725-1750; Rev. Michael C.
Knoli, 1751; Rev. J. T. Reis, 1769; Rev. J. C. Leps, 1774; Rev. Philip
Grotz, 1775-1787; Rev. Henry Moeller, 1788-1789; Rev. Dr. F. H.
Quitman, 1800-1809; Joseph Prentice, 1809-1814; Rev. Dr.

Augustus Wackerhagen, 1816-1822; Rev. Perry G. Cole, 1829-1835. A
Church building was erected in 1791, but never completed. A third
Church was consecrated June 17, 1832, which stood until 1871, and
the following were Pastors: Rev. Thomas Lape, 1835-1838; Rev. A.

Rumph, 1838-1843; Rev. Reuben Dedrick, 1844-1846; Rev. N. H. Cor-
nell, 1847-1850; Rev. David Kline, 1851-1853; Rev. Thomas Lape, 1854-
1857; Rev. D. F. Heller, 1858-1864; Rev. Joseph D. Wert, 1865-1869;
Rev. W. H. Emerick, 1870-1871.

The present church edifice was dedicated in 1871. The following have
been pastors to date: Rev. P. M. Rightmeyer, 1871-1873; Rev. Levi
Schell, 1873-1878; Rev. D. W. Lawrence, 1879-1880; Rev. A. N. Daniels,

474

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

1880-1886; Rev. C. L. Barringer, 1887-1891; Rev. J. J. Hill, 1891-1893;
Rev. W. F. Whittaker, 1893-1895; Rev. L. W. H. Kline, 1896-1897;
Rev. R. C. Wright, 1897-1899; Rev. A. S. Hain, 1899-1904; Rev. C. H.
Traver, 1905. The first parsonage was built for Rev. A. Rumph and
stood near the present church, but was moved to its present site in 1871.

The next oldest Lutheran Church in the County is the Evangelical
Lutheran Church, Woodstock, near the base of Overlook Mountain. It
is about 14 miles southwest from West Camp. A number of families
from Rhinebeck and West Camp moved into the neighborhood. Some
time not long after the Revolution they built a church which was stand-
ing, but unused when the congregation was reorganized in 1805, and
incorporated May 21, 1806, under Rev. Dr. F. H. Quitman. He served
them as time allowed from 1805 to 1809, during which period he cared for
seven other fields. The following filled out the century: Rev. Joseph

Prentice, 1809-1814; Rev. George Wichtman, 1814-1816; Rev. A. Wack-
erhagen, 1816-1822; Rev. W. J. Eyer, 1822-1827; Rev. John Crawford
in 1827 and again in 1829; Rev. Perry E. Cole, 1829-1837; Rev. A.
Rumph, 1837-1842; Rev. E. DeY'oe, 1824-1845; Rev. W. H. Emerick,
1845-1848; Rev. H. Wheeler, 1848-1850; Rev. Thomas Lape, 1850-1856;
Rev. W. I. Cutter, 1856-1858; Rev. Thomas Lape, 1859-1863; Rev. W.
H. Emerick, 1863-1868; Rev. H. Wheeler, 1868-1870; Rev. W. I. Cutter,
1870-1872; Rev. Wm. Sharts, 1872-1887; Rev. M. J. Stover, 1887-1893;
Rev. B. Q. Hallenbeck, 1893-1895 ; Rev. I. J. Delo, 1895-1901 ; Rev.
Walter Frederick, 1902.

The site for the second church was on leased land donated by Henry
Bonesteel and bought absolutely October, 1847. The corner stone of
their present edifice was laid June 12th, 1894, and dedicated November
14th, 1895. They have a commodious and modern parsonage built in
1905, worth $3,000.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church, of Pine Grove, was the fruit
of special services held by Rev. W. H. Emerick, just after leaving Wood-
stock. It is on the State road midway between Woodstock and Saugerties.
The building cost $3,000, and was dedicated January 13th, 1869. The
Society was organized May 27th, 1869. In 1873, Rev. W. I. Cutter
preached for them, but requested them to unite with Woodstock, which
they did in 1878.

THE LUTHERAN CHURCH.

475

Tpie German Evangelical Lutheran Church, of Rondout, was
fostered by Rev. A. Rumph, who learned that many Germans were set-
ling there. He began preaching in 1840, and supplied them eight times
a year. On June 13th, 1841, Mr. G. F. Von Beck, Secretary of the Dela-
ware and Hudson Coal Company, called the congregation together.
Pastor Rumph was present and an organization was effected as Holy
Trinity. Rev. C. H. Siebke became pastor in 1849, labored among
them until 1861. They built a frame church and established a parochial
school in which English and German were taught. Rev. E. Lubkey was
installed July 21st, 1861. The following year a lot was purchased and a
brick parsonage erected, costing $3,000. He resigned March 19th, 1863,
followed by Rev. P. Krug four years, and Rev. Reichenbecker two years.
During the pastorate of Rev. J. M. Steener, 1869-1878, their church and
school were burned, September, 1871, when they built on Spring street a
beautiful Gothic structure, 105 x 98. Rev. J. Steinhauser was pastor,
1878-1888, and Rev. A. Schmidtkonz, 1888 to date.

The German Evangelical Lutheran Immanuel Church filed their
Certificate of Incorporation March 31st, 1870. It was organized by dis-
satisfied members of Holy Trinity, Rondout. They built between the two
villages in what was then known as Wiltwyck, and called Rev. G. F.
Stutz as Pastor, who remained until 1881. This Church is connected
with the Missouri Synod and has had but three Pastors in 36 years — Rev.
G. F. Stutz, 1870-1881; Rev. Fred Tranum, 1881-1888; Rev. G. A.
Henkel, 1888 to date.

Christ's Evangelical Lutheran Church, Ellenville, N. Y., was or-
ganized November 27th, 1850, but was unable to support a pastor. It was
reorganized November 23rd, 1861, by Rev. E. Lubkey, of Kingston, and
incorporated June 3d, 1863. The Church edifice was consecrated Oc-
tober 19th, 1862, and a parsonage built later. In 1863 they called Rev.
C. Kuhn, whom the N. Y. Ministerium would not recognize. He left in
1864, and was followed by Rev. J. Krauss, 1864-1866; Rev. C. Turk,
1867-1869; Rev. J. Goetz, 1869-1874; Rev. F. B. Canz, 1874-1876; Rev.
C. Rock, 1876-1877; Rev. G. L. Rau, 1877-1878; Rev. H. Dorn, 1878-
1881 ; Rev. H. B. Kuhn, 1881-1882 ; Rev. G. A. Batz, 1882-1888. They
were served several years by the pastor at Liberty, N. Y. Rev. J. S.
Braren was installed July 26th, 1896, and remained to 1900. In 1900,

476

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

under Rev. P. Leddin, it withdrew from the N. Y. Ministerium and
joined the N. Y. and N. J. Synod. He resigned December 26th, 1901, and
was followed in 1902 by Rev. H. C. Fultz. Rev. G. A. Neef, D.D., has
been pastor since 1904.

The English Lutheran Church, of Saugerties, was organized by
Rev. A. Rumph, pastor at West Camp, 1837-1842. They purchased the
Church property now owned by the German Lutheran Church. Revs.
Reuben Dederick, N. H. Cornell and David Kline of West Camp held an
afternoon service. A division in 1852 in the Dutch Reformed Church
led to the organization of a Congregational Church, into which the most
of the influential Lutheran families were drawn, and the Lutheran
Society disbanded. It failed to pay for its property, and its owner sold it
to the German Methodists. They in turn failed and sold out to the Ger-
man Evangelical Lutheran Church, organized June i8th, 1859. This
joined the N. Y. Ministerium at Wurtenburg, N. Y., September, 1859.
This society worshipped in the old Academy on Livingston street until
it purchased property on the corner of Ulster Avenue and Elisabeth
streets, which it occupied until 1896, when the present building on Market
street was erected and dedicated under the pastorate of Rev. Theodore
Bauck, 1895-1898. The following pastors served it: Rev. R. Adelberg,
1859-1861; Rev. W. Jahn, 1861-1863; Rev. Herman Fischer, 1863-1865;
Rev. J. D. Haeger, 1866-1869; Rev. J. P. Lichtenberg, 1869-1871;
Rev. F. C. Kaehler, 1871-1874; Rev. J. P. Lichtenberg, 1874-1879; Rev.
C. Kuehn, 1879-1882; Rev. H. Beiderbecke, 1882-1883; Rev. J. J. Roesch,
1883-1885; Rev. B. H. Warnke, 1885-1886; Rev. F. Leddin, 1886-1894;
Rev. Oscar Krauch, 1898-1901; Rev. C. Krahmer, 1901. It has 230
communicants.

The corner stone of the Plattekill Lutheran Church was laid
March 17th, 1863, by Rev. W. Jahn, of Saugerties, and it was dedicated
November 15th, 1863. It is supplied as an afternoon service by the pastor
at Saugerties.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Redeemer, Rondout,
was organized in 1896, as an English church. It called Rev. W. F.
Bacher, whose work is growing. He has nearly 500 members. The
present building serves as church and parsonage, and is on the corner of
Wurtz and Roger streets. The pastor occupies the second and third
floors.

SOCIETY OF FRIENDS.

477

CHAPTER XL.

SOCIETY OF FRIENDS.

By Dewitt W. Ostrander.

HE members of this religious society were among the first settlers

of the southern part of Ulster County, and came mostly from

Long Island and Westchester County. In the month of Decem-
ber, 1760, Edward Hallock, a Friend from Chatauqua, Long Island, sailed
up the Hudson river in his own vessel, with his family, which consisted
of his wife, two sons and ten daughters, settled upon a farm about one-
half mile southerly from the present village of Milton, in what was then
known as New Marlborough, and erected a grist mill on a small stream
running through the farm. He lived there until his death in 1809, the
ninety-third year of his age.

About the time he settled at New Marlborough a family named
Sands, with three sons, one of whom was David, moved from Long
Island and settled upon a farm at Cornwall, Orange County.

A short time after the Sands family settled at Cornwall, Samuel Not-
tingham, a minister of the Friends’ Church, from England, came to Corn-
wall and held meetings, in which young David Sands, who was a Presby-
terian, took part. Having learned of Edward Hallock at New Marlbor-
ough, he called on him and inquired of Hallock if a Friends’ meeting was
held in the place, to which Hallock replied, '‘Yes, my house is open every
first day at ii a. m. for meeting.” This is the first account of a Friends’
meeting being held in Ulster County.

David Sands afterward attended both monthly and quarterly meet-
ings of the society with Edward Hallock at Nine Partners, Dutchess
County, and finally joined the Society of Friends at a Nine Partners
monthly meeting.

In the early part of the year 1772, David Sands married Clementine,
one of the daughters of Edward Hallock, at a special meeting of the
society called for that purpose, at Nine Partners, and, in the spring fol-
lowing, settled at Cornwall, where he opened his dwelling house every

478

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

Sunday morning for public worship. This is the first account of a regu-
lar Friends’ meeting being held in Orange County. At this time the
Friends residing at Cornwall and New Marlborough (Milton) were
members of the Nine Partners monthly and quarterly meetings, but as
their membership increased they desired a monthly meeting on the westerly
side of the river, and hence the Cornwall monthly meeting was established
or set off from the Nine Partners monthly meeting some time previous to
1798. There is no account of the exact date, but in that year the Corn-
wall monthly meeting authorized William Thorn, Jacob Wright, Edward
Hallock and Alexander Young, as trustees, to purchase from Daniel
Knowlton seven acres of land situated about one and a half miles
southerly from the present village of Milton, adjoining the post-road, for
the Society of Friends at New Marlborough. This is the first purchase
of land by the Society of Friends in Ulster County, but there is no record
or tradition that the society occupied this land for more than fifteen years.

On December 23, 1793, Joseph Cornwall, in consideration of twelve
pounds, conveyed to Daniel Cornwall and William Titus, trustees, ap-
pointed at the monthly meeting held at Cornwall, two acres of land situ-
ated at Plattekill, then in the town of Marlborough, and known as “The
Valley,” upon which a meeting house was erected ; and having been re-
paired and enlarged from time to time, meetings have been regularly held
there to the present, and it is still known as “The Valley Meeting House.”

The Cornwall monthly meeting was held by adjournment at Marlbor-
ough (Milton) May 24, 1804, at which extracts from the minutes of the
Nine Partners quarterly meeting were received, allowing the Cornwall
monthly meeting to establish or set off a new monthly meeting to be
known as the Marlborough monthly meeting ; the first meeting to be held
at the meeting house at Marlborough (Milton), 6 mo. 27th day, 1804, and
thereafter at “The Valley” (Plattekill) and Marlborough (Milton) alter-
nately on the day previous to the monthly meeting to be held at Cornwall.

August 20, 1804, Joseph Sutton conveyed to James Hallock, John Wood
and Samuel Adams, trustees, appointed at the monthly meeting held at
Cornwall, one and one-half acres of land situated about one-third of a mile
southerly from the present village of Milton, on the easterly side of the
post-road, upon which a meeting house was erected, and occupied until
1828, when the church “divided,” and that branch of the church known
as “Hicksites” continued to hold meetings in the meeting house, while

SOCIETY OF FRIENDS.

479

that branch of the church known as “Orthodox” held meetings for two
years at the house of Foster Hallock.

In 1830, the orthodox Friends at Milton purchased a lot of land from
Foster Hallock and erected a new meeting house, which was occupied for
fifty years, when it was sold and a new site purchased from the estate of
James H. Bennett and a large and substantial meeting house erected
thereon in 1886, and opened for worship 22nd of 5th month, 1887.

The Friends’ Church of Greenfield, in the town of Wawarsing, was
organized in 1808, by Zadock Southern, Catharine Billew, and the Wash-
burn and Holmes families, with a membership of about twenty-five. The
meeting house was erected in 1818, and the first “approved minister” was
Catharine Billew.

In the year 1807, Samuel Adams, Zephaniah Birdsall, James Pine,
Merritt Moore and Tristrain Russel were appointed a committee by the
Marlborough monthly meeting to establish a meeting at Clintondale in the
town of Plattekill, and on August 20, 1811, John Underhill conveyed to
Daniel Birdsall and Zephaniah Birdsall, trustees, in consideration of
$34.41, one acre and thirty-nine perches of land in Plattekill (now in the
village of Clintondale), upon which a meeting house was erected and
used until 1889, when the present substantial meeting house was erected.

The Friends’ Church at Butterville, in the town of New Paltz, was
established in 1807, and in 1812 Friends’ meetings were organized at
Rosendale Plains in the present town of Rosendale, and at Esopus, and
in 1813 the Friends’ churches at Rosendale Plains and Esopus were
erected.

By the approval of the Nine Partners quarterly meeting the Rosendale
Plains monthly meeting was organized 8 mo. 25th day, 1813, composed
of the Butterville, Esopus and Rosendale Plains preparative meetings.

In 1813 a new quarterly meeting was established or set off from the
Nine Partners quarterly meeting, to be known as the Cornwall quarterly
meeting and to be composed of all the monthly meetings on the west side
of the Hudson River. The Cornwall monthly meeting, when established,
consisted of three monthly m.eetings, each of which was composed of
three preparative meetings. The first quarterly meeting to be held at
“Cornwall on the 5th dav preceding the two last first days in loth month,
1813.”

480

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

The meeting house at Butterville had not been in use by the Friends for
many years, and on the 27th of loth mo., 1900, it was sold, and the pro-
ceeds applied towards building a new meeting house at Rosendale Plains,
on the site of the one erected in 1813. The new meeting house is a
neat frame structure which will seat a large congregation, and is at pres-
ent the second largest in the county. In re-establishing this meeting, the
church owes much to the earnestness and zeal of Violetta M. Ostrander,
wife of Zina C. Coutant, since deceased, who was one of the brightest
lights that ever adorned the Rosendale Plains meeting.

The Friends’ Society in Ulster County at this time nnmbers 514 mem-
bers. <

THE BENCH AND BAR.

481

CHAPTER XLI.

THE BENCH AND BAR.

By Hon. John J. Linson.

The first court of which we have record that ever sat within the
bounds of the County of Ulster, was held at Wiltwyck, on the 12th
day of July, 1661. It was presided over by Roeloff Swartwout, as
schout, with whom were associated Everet Pels, Cornells Barentse
Schlecht and Elbert Hymans Roos as schepens. Under the judicial sys-
tem as it existed in New Netherland the functions of the schout were not
merely those of a sheriff, as has been sometimes supposed. The schout-
fiscal of the province was also a prosecuting officer. He made arrests and
conducted criminal cases. He could apply the torture in the presence of a
magistrate, but only once if the prisoner did not confess. So, too, the
local schout made arrests, presided in civil cases and prosecuted criminals.

Swartwout was not a native of the colony. He had resided therein but
a short time prior to his appointment, which was resented by Stuyvesant,
who was compelled, however, to recognize and submit to it by the direc-
tors of the West India Company. His appointment was probably secured
by family influence. His career was somewhat checquered and he died
a resident of Hurley.

During the brief Dutch occupation litigation was, of course, trivial.
Nothing of general interest is to be found in the meager archives which
we possess.

When the English took possession of the colony the judicial power was
vested in the Governor and Council. The Court of Assizes, established
under the “Duke’s Laws” (A. D. 1665), was composed of the Governor,
High Sheriff and certain justices of the peace. This court had original
jurisdiction in criminal cases and in civil matters where the amount in
dispute was of the value of twenty pounds. A court of Oyer and Termi-
ner, possessing the power of general gaol delivery, was to be held In each
county by a judge, whose commission was issued by the governor and
who was assisted by four justices of the peace.

482

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

The Supreme Court was established by an act of the Colonial Legisla-
ture, passed May 6th, 1691. It consisted of five justices and was “fully
Impowered and Authorized to have Cognizance of all pleas, Civill, Crimi-
nal! and Mixt, as fully and amply to all Intents and purposes whatsoever
as the Courts of Kings Bench, Common Pleas and Exchequer within their
Majestyes Kingdome of England have or ought to have,” provided the
amount in dispute was at least twenty pounds. It could also remove into
itself any action pending in an inferior court where as great a sum as
that of its minimum original jurisdiction was in controversy. It sat “at
the Citty of New Y'orke and not Elsewhere.” It was this court which was
recognized and continued in existence by the first constitution of the
State.

A court of Common Pleas, to consist of one judge with three justices
in each county, was established by the same act. It had civil jurisdiction
up to twenty pounds. It could sit but twice a year and “Noe Longer” than
two days. It began its terms at the close of those of the Court of Ses-
sions held by three justices, which had been established in 1683, with
which it was closely allied. A justice of the peace had jurisdiction in
debt or trespass to the amount of forty shillings.

The sparsity of the population, the small financial interests involved
and the organization of the courts above outlined provided little incentive
for local legal talent during the term of British supremacy. The records
that have come down to us show an occasional indictment for assault and
battery or petit larceny; misdemeanors on the part of negro slaves who
were sentenced to be whipped around the town ; an occasional civil action
growing out of a controversy as to the title to or possession of real prop-
erty ; probate ; apportionment of taxes among the towns and manors, and
negotiations with the Indians. The magistrates were generally laymen,
and causes were usually conducted by the parties in person. The aid of
the Supreme Court seems to have been invoked but seldom; the litigant
from Ulster which appeared there most frequently being the corporation
known as “The Trustees of the Freeholders and Commonalty of the town
of Kingston,” which was involved in much litigation over the boundaries
of the patent. The trustees were also compelled from time to time to
defend actions brought against the inhabitants of the town by the attor-
ney general for quit-rents accruing before the patent was granted. These
suits were brought in the Court of Chancery, which was established by

THE BENCH AND BAR.

483

Governor Hunter, illegally, as claimed by the General Assembly. On
some occasions, at least, the trustees were represented in this litigation by
John Crooke, a lawyer residing at Kingston, who appears to have been a
man of ability, but of whom we know little.

On the 3rd day of May, 1777, the convention which had adopted the
republican constitution, reorganized the Supreme Court ; and on the eighth
of the same month, by ordinance, it appointed John Jay, Chief Justice, and
Robert Yates and John Sloss Hobart, puisne justices. The first term of
court was held under the new government opened at the Court House in
Kingston on the 9th day of the following September, with Chief Justice
Jay presiding. In his charge to the grand jury he congratulated that
body on the dawn of free government, and remarked with satisfaction
that the first fruits of the new constitution appeared in a part of the State,
the inhabitants of which had “distinguished themselves by having unani-
mously endeavored to deserve them.”

The public services of Justice Jay occupy an important place in the
history of the young commonwealth and of the nation. In addition to
his other honors he became Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the
United States. Among the many others of our honored dead who have
held terms of the State Supreme Court in the Court House at Kingston
and who are deserving of mention, v/ere Smith Thompson and Brock-
hoist Livingston, who also attained the Federal Supreme bench; and
James Kent, Chancellor and Chief Justice, whose official titles, honorable
as they were, appear almost insignificant when compared with the splen-
dor of his fame as the author of the “Commentaries on American Law.'^

Notwithstanding the unfavorable conditions heretofore referred to,
the . revolutionary period found an active and able bar in the county.
Foremost, of course, in point of official prominence, was George Clinton,
a member — and the leader — of the patriotic minority of the Colonial
Assembly; member of the Congress which adopted the Declaration of
Independence, for which he votes, although his signature is not appended ;
Brigadier General in the Continental army ; first Governor of the State ;
president of the State Convention which ratified the Federal constitution,
and vice-president of the United States. For many years he was clerk of
the county.

Associated with Governor Clinton, and ranking high among the law-
yers and statesmen of the period, was Charles DeWitt, who, with Clinton,

484

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

had, in the assembly, opposed the royalists, and supported the proposition
to send delegates to Congress; who was chairman of the committee of
safety, a member of the Provincial Convention ; helped to draft the first
State constitution, and subsequently sat in the Assembly of the State and
in Congress.

It would not be possible within the limits of this paper to even enu-
merate all the worthy contemporaries of Clinton and DeWitt. Among
the First Judges of the county were Dirck Wynkoop and Lucas Elmen-
dorf. The former was a member of the Committee of Safety, of the
Provincial Congress of 1775, of the Assembly in 1780-81, and the
State Convention of 1788. The latter served in the Federal Congress
from 1797 to 1803, and was particularly prominent in the profession.

John Addison was a leading lawyer of that day, who appears to have
contented himself with the practice of his profession, without seeking
political preferment. Conrad Edmund Elmendorf lived and practiced at
the same time and was one of the prosecuting officers who were then
known as Assistants Attorney General, appointed for a district made up
of several counties. A relic of the system survives in the title of the
officer whom we call District Attorney. Berent Gardinier, who served in
the tenth and eleventh congresses, and who had much reputation for elo-
quence, conducted a long and bitter newspaper controversy with Gen.
John Armstrong, Secretary of War, Gardinier claiming that Gen. Arm-
strong was and had confessed to being the author of the “New Burgh
army letters.”

Note that when the lines were drawn and the issue was made up, almost
every Ulster County lawyer of position was found on the side of the
colonies. There was hardly a Tory upon the roll.* These lawyers of the
Revolution were versed in the lore of the coiTimon law. They had imbibed
the learning of Coke and the Whig jurists of the mother country. They
knew the importance of eternal vigilance ; that seemingly slight departures
from correct principles of government are dangerous ; that the exercise of
the power of taxation without the consent of the representatives of the
taxed spells despotism. They were aware that the guarantees of freedom,
imbedded in the great charter and soon to be re-enacted in the bills of

* Conspicuous, however, as an exception was Cadwallader Golden, Jr., the presiding judge of
the last court held within the county whose writs ran in the name of George the Third. He was
arrested at the instance of Governor Clinton and confined within his own county jail, but was
soon released on parol. Levi Pawling was appointed to his place by an ordinance of the Pro-
vincial Convention. Judge Pawling was the first citizen of the county who sat in the State
Senate.

Reuben Bernard.

THE BENCH AND BAR.

485

rights, were absolutely essential to the preservation of the liberties of the
people. They saw such guarantees threatened by the action of the king
and his parliament ; and they unhesitatingly risked their lives and fortunes
in defense of the great principles which have kept us free.

. The laity followed willingly the leadership of the bar. Indeed, there
was never much love for the British throne or loyalty towards its occu-
pants among the descendants of the early settlers. Naturally enough,
Dutch William, for a time, was popular in Ulster; but the enthusiasm
which he evoked was never extended to his stupid though respectable
sister-in-law, nor to the equally stupid and generally less respectable heirs
of the body of the Electress Sophia. From the standpoint of an English
Officer, General Vaughan wrote truth when he characterized Esopus as
“a nursery for almost every villain in the country.”

Between the lawyers of revolutionary times and those who belong prop-
erly to the latter half of the nineteenth century stretched an unbroken
line containing many names of good repute. Abraham Bruyn Has-
brouck was Representative in Congress in 1826 and 1827, and President of
Rutgers College from 1840 to 1850. Charles H. Ruggles was in the State
Assembly in 1820, and was afterwards Vice Chancellor, Circuit Judge
and Judge of the Court of Appeals under the Constitution of 1846. John
Sudam attained great eminence professionally and served with equal dis-
tinction in the State Senate. Charles G. DeWitt represented the district
in Congress in 1830-31, and was charge d’affaires of the United States
in Central America from 1833 to 1839. As a writer on political questions
he was known throughout the country. Herman M. Romeyn, whose repu-
tation as an advocate has never been surpassed by any member of the
Ulster County Bar, held no office, except in 1836, when he sat in the
Assembly, and in 1840, when he was a member of the Electoral College
and its messenger to Washington. John Van Buren was a member of
Assembly in 1831 and of Congress in 1842-43. John Cole was the leading
lawyer of Southern Ulster.

Connected somewhat with these names, and reaching over among those
that follow, was William B. Wright who, having with signal ability repre-
sented Sullivan County, of which he was then a resident, in the Constitu-
tional Convention of 1846, was elected, in 1847, to the Supreme Court.
He removed to Kingston in 1852 and was twice re-elected to the Supreme
bench. In 1861 he was promoted by the people to the Court of Appeals,

486

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

of which he became chief judge. His powerful mind and massive common
sense are best evidenced by his many opinions while a member of the
court of last resort.

Marius Schoonmaker was State Senator in 1850-51 ; Representative in
the Thirty-second Congress ; auditor of the Canal Department in 1854 ;
Superintendent of the Bank Department in 1855 ; and a member of the
Constitutional Convention of 1867. He also held office for many years in
the old village of Kingston. In 1888, at the age of seventy-seven, he
published his history of Kingston, which is, and will doubtless ever re-
main, the standard work on the subject. Mr. Schoonmaker was a lawyer
of the old school, particularly well versed in the law of real property and
inclined strongly to equity as against purely legal remedies.

John B. Steele sat in the Thirty-seventh and Thirty-eighth Congresses
as the Representative of the Eleventh New York district, of which Ulster
County was a part. He was a strong man at the trial bar, of great per-
sonal popularity and high character. His temperament, however, led him
to prefer a political life, even in times of stress and peril, to a career at
the bar.

Efastus Cooke was one of the leaders of the bar while in Kingston, and
subsequently served on the bench of the Supreme Court in the Second
District.

Severyn Bruyn, Charles R. Westbrook, Nicholas Sickles, County
Judges James O. Linderman, Henry Brodhead, Jr., Gabriel W. Ludlum
and James C. Forsyth belong to the same era. With them should be
mentioned Egbert Whitaker, who, surviving many younger men, lived
almost to the time these lines w^ere written.

This was the golden age of the village lawyer. His income would
appear small to-day. The majority of his cases involved trifling amounts
and they were not great in number. But he had a code of professional
ethics, adherence to which was to be preferred to riches. He was a gen-
tleman at heart and in conduct; he had the respect and confidence of his
neighbors ; he tried patiently to keep people out of trouble instead of
enticing them in ; when important questions divided opinion and agitated
the public, his judgment was asked and freely given, and it exerted an
influence unequalled by pulpit or press.

As the nineteenth century approached its last quarter, the bar which
assembled in Kingston at the sound of the Court House bell, preserved

Hector Sears.

THE BENCH AND BAR.

487

well the traditions of the past and added to the reputation of the frater-
nity. In what follows, the mention of certain names which became promi-
nent in civil life is not to be taken to the disparagement of others, per-
force omitted. The law of the survival of the fittest holds good not
always among lawyers’ reputations. The soundest reasoner, the strongest
advocate, is by no means, necessarily, the most successful politician. But
the memory of those who have served the State is best preserved and the
limitations of space are inexorable.

Theodoric R. Westbrook was chosen to Congress in 1852 and to the
bench of the Supreme Court in 1873; he remained a judge of that court
until his death in 1885. When at the bar he had a very extensive experi-
ence in the trial of cases — a branch of the profession in which he took
delight. His trial practice made him a ready judge. His command of
English was remarkable, and his charges to juries were models of diction.
He was a man of kind heart, of quick perception and of indefatigable
industry.

Jacob Hardenbergh was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention of
1867 and a member of the .State Senate in 1870, 1871 and 1872. In both
bodies he took high rank. At the bar he was noted for the almost unerr-
ing skill with which he selected the strong central point of the case, about
which to make his fight, leaving mdnor issues and complications to take
care of themselves. It was, perhaps, not too much to say of him, as has
been said, that he “was for several years the most conspicuous and popu-
lar citizen of Ulster County.”

William S. Kenyon represented Ulster and Greene counties in the
exciting Thirty-sixth Congress, which sat for the two years preceding the
Civil War. From 1884 to 1899 he was County Judge. He was a courtly
gentleman, reminiscent of an older school than ours. His integrity was
of the highest order, and his knowledge of the science of law was pro-
found. For many years in the latter part of his life he confined his pro-
fessional activities mainly to office practice.

Augustus Schoonmaker filled the office of County Judge from 1863 to
1871; that of State Senator in 1876-77; Attorney General in 1878-79;
State Civil Service Commissioner from 1883 to 1887, and member of the
Federal Interstate Commerce Commission thereafter until 1891. His long
public service attests the contemporary estimate of his character and
ability. He had a large practice, particularly in litigated cases, and his

488

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

great strength with a jury of the county was equalled only by his standing
in the appellate courts.

George H. Sharpe engaged but little in the active practice of the pro-
fession after the outbreak of the Civil War. He was the Colonel of the
I20th Regiment, N. Y. S. V., and brevetted Brigadier and Major General.
He was afterwards, successively. Special Agent of the State Department
in Europe, Marshal for the Southern District of New York, and Surveyor
of Customs at the Port of New York. He served in the Assembly in 1879,
1880, 1881 and 1882, being speaker in 1880 and i88i. General Sharpe
enjoyed the personal friendship and confidence of at least two presidents
of the United States, Generals Grant and Arthur.

William Lawton was County Judge from 1872 to 1883. Together with
Seymour L. Stebbins, who was his partner, he had a large practice. Judge
Lawton was a man of singularly even temper, judicial and fair to the
tips of his fingers. He was no mean antagonist in the court room, and
his absolute rectitude was axiomatic with his professional brethren.

The name of Seymour L. Stebbins falls naturally in line after that of
his partner. They were associates in business for more than a quarter of
a century. Mr. Stebbins held no office other than some of a local nature,
but he was a lawyer of subtile mind and clear reasoning faculty, a wit of
a high order, whose humor was pleasing and without malice ; the master
of a fine literary style and the possessor of much literary knowledge, and
a companionable, agreeable and honorable man.

Frederick L. Westbrook was Special County Judge and District Attor-
ney. He was best known, however, as counsel in litigated cases, in which
capacity, either at nisi prius or in the Appellate Courts, he had few superi-
ors anywhere. His professional experience was large. He was a man
of noticeable presence. In addition to his multifarious and pressing
business engagements he found time to interest himself in local matters
of moment, notably in the cause of education.

Peter Cantine was Surrogate from 1872 to 1877. He had a very large
practice, representing, perhaps, at one time, more important interests than
any other member of the bar of the county. He possessed extraordinary
capacity for labor, was never satisfied until he had probed the subject
under consideration to the very depths, and he was considered by every
other leader of the bar as a dangerous and honorable antagonist.

Charles A. Fowler was elected Surrogate in 1867 and State Senator m

Charles W. Walton,

THE BENCH AND BAR.

489

1879. He served in the legislature with distinguished ability. As a law-
yer he was noted for his grasp of legal principles and his remarkable
command of apt language in argument. An address of his to a jury or a
court, even a speech from the hustings, would have required no revision
for publication. He was a genial companion and a. kindly man.

William Lounsbery represented the first district of the county in the
Assembly of 1868; in 1878-79 he was Mayor of the City of Kingston, and
in 1879-80 Representative in Congress. In both the Legislature and in
Congress — taking into consideration the fact that he served but a single
term in each — he occupied very prominent positions. He wrote with much
ability, contributed frequent articles to the press, including occasional
poems of considerable merit. He possessed unusual powers of condensa-
tion, and his legal papers present in that respect a sharp contrast to the
precedents of the olden time.

John E. Van Etten was a lawyer of large practice who held no office.
In his leisure moments he relieved the professional strain by oversight of
his farms, of which he possessed several, and by versification — an art of
which he was fond. He was a man of great industry and he had many
devoted clients.

A sketch of the bench and bar of Ulster compressed within the limits
required by a work of this character, must necessarily be desultory and
incomplete. The writer has tried to forestall two kinds of criticism; the
one that his paper is a panegyric, imaginative, rhetorical ; the other that it
is a brief biographical dictionary of the dry-as-dust order. He has pre-
ferred the middle way. Whether he has succeeded is for others to decide.
Reference to specific professional work has been manifestly impossible.
To even allude to the important questions which have been determined by
the court of last resort in cases originating in the county would require
a paper as long as this. To catalogue and comment on the interesting
causes which have been tried within the walls of Kingston Court House
would fill a volume. It has seemed imperative, too, that all reference to
persons now living be omitted. Let those who follow us write a supple-
ment if they will ; and may the Jtidge of judges grant that the successors
of the giants of the past prove worthy of their professional heritage.

The panorama is a long one. The figures upon the canvas are some-

490

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

times blurred ; again, they appear in full relief. As one contemplates the
prodigious amount of work accomplished by those who have gone before,
and contrasts it with the rewards which have accrued to the laborers, it
seems, perchance, their message may be this :

“Do what thy manhood bids thee do; from none but self expect applause;

He noblest lives and noblest dies who makes and keeps his self-made laws;
All other life is living death, a world where none but phantoms dwell,

A breath, a wind, a sound, a voice, a tinkling of the camel bell.”

THE MEDICAL PROFESSION.

491

CHAPTER XLIL
THE MEDICAL PROFESSION.

By Henry Van Hoevenberg, M.D.

T the time of the settlement of Ulster County in the early part of the

seventeenth century, the profession of medicine was in a condition

which, to this age, seems that of the Dark Ages, for the members
of the profession were just beginning clinical observation and study. The
books in use were, many of them, of no value so far as giving the physi-
cian any actual aid in the treatment of disease. The works of Hippocrates,
who wrote in the second century before Christ, and Galen, seven cen-
turies later, were still the standard authorities. The armamentarium of
that day consisted of simples and compounds with the addition of mineral
preparations in a crude form. These were administered in powders, pills
and decoctions, or applied locally as ointments, plasters or linaments. The
time for gathering the herbs, of which many remedies were composed,
was regulated by the phases of the moon or conjunctions of the planets.
Above all was the lancet, and on it the physician placed the most reliance
in his efforts to overcome ailments. Practically nothing was known of
the cause of disease, and its treatment was almost entirely empirical.

The earlier physicians who practiced physic and surgery in the colonies,
received their degree in medicine from the Universities of Europe, but
as time passed, laws were enacted providing for the licensing of persons
to practice physic or surgery, or both, after having passed an examination
as to their qualifications. This condition was necessary by the fact that
there were no medical schools in this country. The first medical school
was founded in 1765 in Philadelphia and was followed in 1768 by the
organization of a medical department in Kings College, now Columbia
University, in New York City, and to the latter belongs the honor of
conferring the first degree of Doctor of Medicine in this country. The
seventeenth century doctors, while not the equals of the physicians of the
present day in qualifications and training for their professional duties,
were very much in advance of those of the previous century, and included

492

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

in their ranks many men of marked ability. The physician was the guide,
counsellor and friend of all his neighbors, wielding an influence second
only, if at all, to that of the pastor of the church. This caused him to be
frequently called upon to perform public duties other than those arising
from his profession, and he was consequently one of the most potent
factors in the political as well as the social life of the community.

As the result of conferences between members of the medical profession
in Saratoga County held in the latter part of the eighteenth and early
part of the nineteenth centuries, it was decided to ask for the passage of
an Act to regulate admission to the practice of medicine in this State,
by the establishment of a State Medical Society, which was to be com-
posed of representatives of the profession in the different counties, this
body to have the power to grant or refuse licenses to practice medicine.
This resulted in the passage, on April 4th, 1806, of “an Act to Incorporate
Medical Societies for the Purpose of Regulating the Practice of Physic
and Surgery in the State.” This Act directed how the societies in the
counties should be formed and that one representative from each society
should meet in the city of Albany on the first Tuesday of February fol-
lowing and there organize the Medical Society of the State.

In accordance with the provisions of this Act, meetings were held and
the organization of both County and State Societies effected, the centen-
nial of which event has this year been celebrated by the Medical Society
of the County of Ulster with appropriate ceremonies.

The meeting of the physicians of Ulster County was called for July
ist, 1806, at the Court House in the village of Kingston, and the original
record book of the Medical Society of the County of Ulster is now on
file in the office of the County Clerk at Kingston. The first entry is a
copy of the Act of April 4th, 1806, giving detailed directions as to where,
when and how the organization should be effected ; then follow amend-
ments to the law made in 1807 and 1813. The following extract is taken
from the minutes of the first meeting:

“Kingston, Ulster County, July ist, 1806.

In pursuance of an Act of the Legislature of the State of New York entitled
“an Act to incorporate Medical Societies for the purpose of regulating the prac-
tice of Physic and Surgery in said State,” passed April 4th, 1806, Thirteen Phy-
sicians and Surgeons, To Wit, James Oliver, Luke Kiersted, Benj. R. Bevier,
James Houghtaling, Peter Vanderlyn, Andrew Snyder, James J. Hasbrouck, John
Bakeman, Conrad Newkirk, Abraham Fieroe, Jf., Ezekiel Webb, George W.
Bancker, and Abraham T. E. DeWitt, all of whom, now authorized by law to
practice in their several professions, convened, (“pursuant to adjournment from

THE MEDICAL PROFESSION.

493

the Court-house where the last term of the Court of Common Pleas, next previous
to such meeting was last held,”) at the house of Cornelius C. Elmendorf in the
village of Kingston, Ulster County, on Tuesday, the first day of July, in the ypr
of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and six and made choice of the following
officers. To Wit — James Oliver, President, Luke Kiersted, Vice President, Ben-
jamin R. Bevier, Secretary, and James Houghtaling, Treasurer, as proper for the
conduct and regulation of the Medical Society of the County of Ulster, now hereby
established, to continue in office for the term of one year and until others are
chosen in their Place.

Resolved that this Society will proceed to the Election of three proper Persons
as Censors to said Society and one other proper Person to represent Said Society
in the Medical Society of the State of New York,”

Drs. Abraham T. E. DeWitt, Benj. R. Bevier and Peter Vanderlyn
were chosen Censors, and Dr. James G. Graham, representative to the
State Society. The dues of members were fixed at fifty cents, and a com-
mittee, consisting of Drs. James Oliver, Luke Kiersted and Benjamin R.
Bevier, was appointed, “to prepare and report to this Society at the next
meeting thereof, a suitable code, or form of rules and regulations for the
further conduct of the same.”

The Society was soon called upon to take an active part in State
Medicine, as is shown by the following communication received at its
second meeting, held September 2d, 1806, which was referred to a com-
mittee and a reply drafted by them was adopted unanimously :

“Kingston, September 2d, 1806.

Gentlemen, —

The Village of Kingston is at present afflicted very generally with a Bilious
Fever. Many Persons have an opinion that the Cause exists in the Stagnant
Waters in Mr. Benjamin Bogardus’ Mill Pond, others entertain a different opinion,
but do not attempt to assign any cause for it. — The ideas of so large and respectable
a Body of Physicians as are now assembled in the Village, would be entitled to
great weight, and we do therefor take the Liberty of earnestly entreating you to
communicate to us Your Opinion upon this very serious and important Subject.
With much Respect, Gentlemen. Your Obedt. Servt.

In behalf of the Directors of the Village,

Joseph Chipp,

To the Gentlemen composing Presdt.

the Medical Society of the
County of Ulster.”

REPLY.

“To the Directors of the Village of Kingston: —

Gentlemen, —

The Medical Society of the County of Ulster have, agreeable to your request,
deliberately taken into Consideration the Communication Which You were pleased
to present to us this day, as far as Time and opportunity would permit. They are
of opinion that the noxious Exhalations arising from the Mill Pond and adjacent
Sources of Filth annexed to your Village, in a great measure contribute to the
Prevalence and progress of that Species of Fever Which is so severely experienced
therein.

494

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

Time will not permit at present for us to give you that General Satisfaction on
this Subject which its importance demands and which you are perhaps induced
to desire. By Order of the Society,

B. R. Bevier, Sec’y.”

At a meeting held on December 2d, 1806, the following resolution was
passed :

“Resolved, That the Seal which is now suspended by the chain of the President’s
watch be the proper Seal of this Society until another one Shall be procured and
admitted of.”

Meetings of the Society were held, usually semi-annually, until 1833.
Discussions on medical subjects took place at these meetings and the
records show that an active part was taken by the members in the various
matters affecting the public health. After 1837 no meetings were held
until June 1st, 1858, when a call was issued for a meeting at the Court
House in Kingston. The physicians present were Drs. Peter Crispell, Jr.,
John Wales, Josiah Hasbrouck, Barnett McClelland, E. M. Secor, Jacob
Vreeland, Thomas J. Nelson, James Oliver Van Hoevenberg, Levi
Lounsbery, Abram Crispell, Charles D. DeWitt, Edgar Elting, William
B. Davis, Edmund Brink, Philip D. B. Hoornbeck.

The following were elected officers :

Peter Crispell, Jr., President; Barnett McClelland, Vice-President;
Edgar Elting, Secretary; Levi Lounsbery, Corresponding Secretary;
Charles D. DeWitt, Treasurer; Thomas J. Nelson, John Wales, Levi
Lounsbery, James O. Van Hoevenberg and Josiah Hasbrouck, Censors;
Abram Crispell, James O. Van Hoevenberg and Thomas J. Nelson, Dele-
gates to the State Society.

The meetings of the Society were continued regularly until 1861. The
war of 1861-5 caused a suspension of the meetings until 1864, when they
were resumed and have been held regularly since that date.

In 1901 the Ulster County Medical Association, in affiliation with the
New York State Medical Association, organized and continued until
1906, when the two State organizations were consolidated under the name
of the Medical Society of the State of New York. Quarterly meetings
were held regularly and the scientific program was a feature of each.

The roll of membership in the medical profession of Ulster County
contains the names of many who ranked high as physicians and surgeons ;
whose names are to be found in the public records not only of the County,
but of the State, as giving freely their services to their country. It was
not an unusual thing to find physicians in several generations of a family,

'riiic n<( )M':ssion.

notably th<‘ KicT.Mt<*(|s, ()livns, (j'i.spHlM, DcWillM, V.'m I Inrvf’iibrt
I lasbroiiclcs and oIIuth, and many of llicni all.imcd |m nmimaicr* m nllin
brancbcs of pnlilic arlivily.

If is in limes of dislicss ;md , and wlicn men aie in ninil:il a}.'ony

and sn/ferin^; from wound’, or di .casc*, lli.'il llie '.nviees ol a |>liysH i;m ,iie
in I'rcalesI <lciii;md, :iiid well did llie |»liy',i( i;nrt .*iinl mi i f;enir. nl 1 ll »l( i
Conniy live nj) |o IIk* In^di e;il|in^; ol llieii pi ole’, '.ion m llie lioiibloii'H

lim<*s of llie (’ivil W.'ir, Alike in (lie lio.pll.il’, a( lioiiie allendinp llie

wonmled and Invalid, in llie '.anil.'iiy dep.'ii I menl'i ol llie fpe;ii .'iiinie*, ,'ind
at the fioni on lln* lifdilinp lln<*, iiieiiiiiiif^' (lie ir.lo. ol b;illle ;md lelievmp,
(lie ap,onie‘i o\ lliose wlio li.'id l.'illen beiie;il|i ||ic -,|ir>| :uid ’.ludl ol llu'
enemy, llie jiliyf.iriaii could be loimd willi Id’, me'.'iapf ol < oiiibMl and aid
lo file alllii l<*d, (II . lei (loimly wa’i well i ejn r'.enled a( lie- lioiil, anion/.'
oIIhms, by I >r, jo'a pli I). Keyier, wbo enlr.led while a iiM’dI< al .(iidenl a".
Iio'.pilal '.h'ward In lli<‘ i,'olb N. V. Volnnleei ., wa’. laken pii.onei rally

in lil'i srn vice ami afler a Ion/' iinpi I’.onnn-n( wa’i r-xrbanp/'d Al llir-

(jloar« of ibe war be re’.ninr*r| Id’, ’.Imllr", and wa’, a<lnd(ler| (r» iIm- piarlire
of niedir’ine. He died al llu* ape rd Ibiily live, a vir lini l<> rb’iabiblie',
conlracled in llu* M*rvict*.

In llie laller pail ol llie nineleenib cr'iilniy '.eveial r*(loir, w<*ir* made
fo orpanize a lio ,|dlal in Klnp .lon, bill (lu*y weir* nol ',m r‘r"; ,lnl nnlil
jnly, wlu*n llu* (*ily of Kinp’ilon I br.pilal wa’; nu <n jun alral,

I'lmd’, fr>r bnlldiii/' weir* rai’,r*r| by '.iib .r i Ipl ion, ami on I’bwr nibr i zylli,
llu* luc.jillal was o\)cuvi\ bn llu* i r*r r |>l irni <d palir*nla, .Iiu r* wldr b
time It ba-, br*r*n in Siur r*'cd nl r>pr*ralirni aiul poiverl a boon lo llu* ai«‘k ami
Injnrr*r|, nol rally of llu* rily rd Klnp.lon, bill rd llu* ',ni i oinulinp rramliy,
r(!rr*ivinp j>alir*nl’, frrmi Ibe arijrdidnp rramllr", In arMllirai bi (lio'.r liran
Ulsler.

Al llu* linu* r>f \\’, r>rpa,ni/alion llu* Ibrairl oi Maiiapr'r, wa’, :r-. b>llriwa;
Hr. flr*r>r/p* (!. Smilli, I'resirlent ; Kev. Hi. R. K. Iinil'ir*ll, Vice I'le'jrlmi ;
William M. I laye-i, Ser rr-laiy ; Hr. jar r,b Kbamber’,, 'l i ea'mrei ; Mr**cn a
Jrdm b>. Kiall, 1'. J. Mynn, Janu*'i A. Iir*il ,, fr>lm Mr bailer* .'uul l'ir*rlr*i ir !<
J. K. Klarkra I'rr*vlrar, b> llu* friimal r>pr*ninp llu*',e pby'dr;ian*5 r>f ibe
city w<*rr* ae|r*r|r*rl by llu* Iba'irrl oi Maiiapr*!'; Ir> rr>mprc,r* the merlir'al
stuff: Snrperni'i, His. Ibniy Van I lra*vr*nbr*i p, Srrre|;iry ()f .Slab;

Jacob fjbamlu*rs, ('Ji'.uh'H W. Krr, jiejl^ tjiailr”, A. Mmin, Alrxanrini A.
Stern ami James K. Kre.'don. Kbyair'ian'., Hra. bjberi II. Kraipbran, A. H.

496

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

Mambert, Daniel Connolly, R. R. Thompson, E. E. Norwood, Eugene J.
Gallagher, C. F. Keefe, A. P. Chalker, William M. Decker.

The following sketches of some of the more prominent physicians of
the past are taken from the files of the Medical Society of Ulster County
and various public records of the county, as well as private biographies.

Dr. Gysbert Van Imbroch. — The first physician and surgeon of whom
there is any record in the Esopus was Dr. Gysbert Van Imbroch. Governor
Stuyvesant, having recognized the necessity for a physician in the new
settlement, had induced him to come from New Amsterdam and settle
here. Dr. Van Imbroch was prominent in the civil affairs of Esopus and
his name appears frequently in the records of his time. He served as
Schepen, or Justice, from 1663 to 1665, and was one of the delegates from
the Esopus to the first representative body in New Netherlands, which
met in New Amsterdam in 1664. He married, before coming here, Rachel,
daughter of Dr. Johannes de la Montagne, a prominent physician of New
Amsterdam and also Vice-Director under Governor Stuyvesant. She was
taken captive by the Indians in 1663 at the burning of Wiltwyck, but
escaped sometime afterward and died in October, 1664, soon after the
birth of her last child.

Dr. Van Imbroch died on the 29th of August, 1665, less than one year
after the death of his wife, leaving three minor children, Lysbert, bom
1659 i Johannes, born 1661, and Gysbert, born August 24th, 1664, for
whom guardians were appointed. An inventory of the estate filed in the
Schouts Court shows that his medical library consisted of fourteen
volumes, viz. : Folios— Medicine Book of Christopher Wirtungh ;

Medicine Book of Ambrocius Paree; Medicine Book of Johannes de
Vega; a Vessaly and Valuerda Anatomy. Quartos — Bernard van Zut-
phen. Practice; a German work on Medicine; three written medicine
books; Medical Remarks by Nicholaes Tulp; German Medical Manual
by Q. Apollinare; Examination of Surgery by Mr. Cornelis Herbs, a
written medicine and Sudent Book; a book on surgery without a title.

This list shows that, for his day, he was a man well read in the liter-
ature of his profession.

Benjamin Helm was one of the earliest and most distinguished phy-
sicians and surgeons who practiced in Ulster. Educated in Holland, a
follower of Boerhaave, and a firm believer in the great law that Nature
had provided in each locality a specific for the diseases peculiarly incident

THE MEDICAL PROFESSION.

497

to the place, he devoted much attention to the curative properties of herbs,
roots and barks. He was much interested in the knowledge of their
medicinal qualities possessed by the North American Indians, and after
submitting the vegetable remedies known to them to many tests, he came
to the conclusion that the Indians had a far more accurate and compre-
hensive knowledge of the effect of simple remedies upon the human
system than did many civilized people. He embodied the results of his
observations and experiments in a paper which he transmitted to the
Guild of the Physicians of Holland, by whom it was printed and dis-
tributed among the medical schools of that country. Dr. Helm was a
surgeon in the Continental Army, and was the medical attendant and
personal friend of Washington during the latter’s residence in the City
of New York. He married a daughter of Abraham Klaarwater, of Bon-
tecoe, first meeting his wife at Tarrytown, where she was visiting a rela-
tive who had married one of the VanTasells of Westchester. After the
close of the Revolution he came to Kingston, frequently visiting Bonte-
coe and the neighborhood thereabouts. He died in the City of New York,
where he owned a large amount of valuable property.

James Oliver, First, resided in Marbletown, Ulster County. Born in
1745, died 1826. Married Margaret, daughter of Matthew Newkirk.
Was surgeon of an Ulster County regiment in the War of the Revolution,
and was at the battle of Saratoga. Appointed Judge of the County Court,
1800. He was the first President of the Medical Society of Ulster
County from its organization in 1806 to 1809. He had an extensive
practice over the county and was a well-known and able physician. His
son, ,

James Oliver, Second, was born December 24th, 1806, died October
I2th, 1893. Married Gitty, daughter of Cornelius C. Cole and lived in
Marbletown. He combined the life of a farmer with the practice of
medicine.

Dr, Hans Kiersted, born June 17th, 1677. Godfather, Peter Bayard;
godmother, Blandina Kiersted. He married Arrantje Tappen on Novem-
ber 19th, 1701, and died April 6th, 1737. He was famous for his knowl-
edge of the Indian dialects. It is recorded of him that upon being
addressed in Latin by a learned doctor in the course of a consultation, he
replied in the Indian tongue. He practiced in Kingston, living either in
Wall or Green street. His son. Dr. Christopher Kiersted. married Cath-

498

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

erine DeMyer, and died in Rhinebeck in consequence of a fall from his
horse while visiting his son, Dr. Hans Kiersted. This Dr. Hans Kiersted
married Janetje Hoffman, daughter of Anthony Hoffman of Kingston.
He had been educated in Kingston, but afterward settled in Dutchess
County. Major Van Gaasbeek visited him in Rhinebeck and describes
him as “a large, portly man, six feet high, broad shouldered and good
looking, with light hair, blue eyes, and a benevolent countenance.” He
was born May loth, 1743, died Sept. 29, 1811. Jane Hoffman, consort of
Dr. Kiersted, was born in Kingston also, April 10, 1743, died, Jan. 18,
1808. They had but one child, Sally, born July 14th, 1773.

Dr. Henry Van Hoevenberg was born at Staatsburg, Dutchess County,
N. Y., November 3d, 1790, and died in Kingston, July 29th, 1868, aged
seventy-eight years. His youth was spent on his father’s farm, having
but a short time yearly to attend the common school. Slight as were
his opportunities, they created a desire for a more liberal education and,
after some months in the Academy at Ellsworth, Conn., he entered upon
the study of medicine in 1810 with Dr. Joshua E. R. Birch in the City of
New York. In 1811-12 he attended a course of medical lectures in the
City of Philadelphia, obtained his diploma in 1812, and immediately
entered the army of the United States as Assistant Surgeon of the Thir-
teenth Regiment of U. S. Infantry, commanded by Col. Peter B. Schuy-
ler, and was ordered to the Niagara Frontier, where, after the battle of
Queenstown, he organized the first military hospital. He continued in
charge until the general hospital was removed to Buffalo, and at this
post acted as Assistant Hospital Surgeon. Here he was obliged to resign
his commission in the spring of 1814 because of ill-health. During his
term of service in the army, in 1813, he married Jane Catherine Heer-
mance, eldest daughter of General Martin Heermance of Rhinebeck,
Dutchess County. His health improving, he shipped as surgeon on board
the privateer Whig, commanded by Captain Clark, and served until the
close of the war, when he settled in Marbletown in the County of Ulster.
He remained there until July, 1817, when he removed to Kingston, where
he continued until 1827, when he moved to New York. During his resi-
dence in the County of Ulster he was a member of, and held several offices
in, the Ulster County Medical Society.

In 1835 he was appointed, by the Common Council of New York City,
Resident Physician of Bellevue Hospital, Supervisor of the Alms House,

Abraham Crispell, M.D

THE MEDICAL PROFESSION.

499

Penitentiary, Bridewell’s, etc. In 1838 he was appointed Deputy Health
Officer of the Port of New York, and in 1843 was appointed Health
Officer of the Port, which office he held until 1848. This closed his pro-
fessional career, and after eight years’ residence on Staten Island, he
returned to Kingston and lived a retired life until his death. During his
whole life he maintained a high standard, both professionally and as a
citizen. He attained high rank as a physician and surgeon, always giving
thorough satisfaction in the discharge of his duties, both as a public
official and private practitioner, in the latter capacity being much in
demand in consultation. One daughter and three sons survived him, one
of the sons, James Oliver Van Hoevenberg, being a prominent physician
of Kingston at the time of his father’s death.

Dr. James Oliver Van Hoevenberg, son of Dr. Henry Van Hoevenberg,
was born in Kingston, July i6th, 1821. He received a common school
education and at the age of nineteen decided to enter the profession of
medicine. He thus followed in the footsteps, not only of his father, but
of a long line of ancestors, being descended through his maternal grand-
mother from Dr. Hans Kiersted, who came to New Amsterdam in 1638
as surgeon to the Dutch West India Company, and was the first physician
to practice medicine in New Amsterdam, and whose descendants for the
next four generations were also physicians and surgeons. After pre-
liminary studies with a physician, as was the custom in those days, he
received his degree of Doctor of Medicine from the New York University
in 1844. After graduation he served on the staff of Bellevue and Black-
well’s Island Hospitals in the City of New York. He was then appointed
Deputy Health Officer of the Port of New York and was stationed at the
Quarantine on Staten Island. In 1846 he received his commission as
Assistant Surgeon of New York Volunteers under Col. J. D. Stevenson.
After leaving the Quarantine he practiced his profession on Staten Island
until 1856, when he came to Kingston, where he remained until 1877. In
1857 he was commissioned Surgeon of the 20th N. Y. State Militia, and in
1862 went to the Civil War as Surgeon of the 120th N. Y. Volunteers
(one of the three hundred fighting regiments), with the rank of Major.
Being compelled to resign his commission on account of disabilities con-
tracted in the service, he returned to Kingston and practiced there until
1877, when he was appointed Physician at Sing Sing State Prison. Upon
leaving this office he returned to Staten Island and practiced his profession

500

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

until his death, December 7th, 1897. He married, June 14th, 1849, his
cousin Esther Maria, daughter of Colonel James Dumond Van Hoeven-
berg and Alma Rogers. They had three daughters and two sons, one of
the latter, Henry, becoming a physician, and the other, James Dumond, a
lawyer.

Dr. Van Hoevenberg became one of the most prominent physicians and
surgeons of this part of the State, his practice extending throughout
Ulster and the adjoining counties, and his services and advice were
sought by both professional brethren and laymen. He was a man of
wide reading and general education, having a splendid mind with the
poetical temperament, and was a great lover of nature. He held no
political office, though always active in any movement for bettering the
affairs of the community in which he lived. He was an active member
of the State and County Societies, and was frequently called upon to
serve them in official capacities.

Dr. Peter Crisp ell, Jr., was born in August, 1794, at Hurley, Ulster
County. His great-grandfather, Anthony Crispell, a Huguenot, came from
Artois, France, 1660, and was one of the original patentees of New Paltz.
His great-grandmother, Maria Blanshan, was sister-in-law of Louis Be-
vier, the leader of the New Paltz immigrants, and also a patentee. Peter
Crispell was in succession student, tutor and trustee of the Kingston Aca-
demy. He attended medical lectures in New York City and was licensed
by the Medical Society of Ulster County. He practiced a short time in
Esopus, then went to Marbletown until 1837, when he moved to his
farm on the Hurley Flats and continued to practice until his death in
December, 1878. He enjoyed a large practice, which extended over a
great portion of the county. He was also a successful farmer, at one
time being awarded a prize for having the best conducted farm in the
State.

In 1849 he was a Member of Assembly and was afterward nominated
for Congress, but defeated. He was Presidential Elector in 1828, and was a
delegate to the National Convention in Chicago which nominated Abraham
Lincoln for the Presidency. He married Catherine, daughter of Cornelius
Eltinge of Hurley, by whom he had one daughter and five sons, two of
whom were professional men, Abraham Crispell, M. D., of Kingston, and
Cornelius Elting Crispell, D. D., who became a Professor in Rutgers Col-
lege, N. J., and afterwards in Hope College, Michigan.

THE MEDICAL PROFESSION.

501

Dr. Abraham Crisp ell, son of Dr. Peter Crispell, Jr., was born in Mar-
bletown June 22d, 1823, and died in Kingston November 4th, 1881. He
was educated in Kingston Academy and Peekskill (N. Y.) Academy, now
Peekskill Military Academy. He then began the study of medicine,
attending first the Berkshire Medical College at Pittsfield, Mass., and
graduated from the University of the City of New York in 1849. He
came at once to Kingston, where he attained high rank among the phy-
sicians of his time. He enjoyed a large practice throughout the county
and was frequently called upon in consultation. At the beginning of the
Civil War he was appointed Surgeon of the 20th N. Y. State Militia,
and was with them through the three months’ service. He was appointed
Brigade-Surgeon of Volunteers on April 4th, 1862, by President Lincoln
and was stationed at various points in the South. He acted as Health
Officer at Hilton Head, S. C., for some time, and was afterward in charge
of a large hospital at Buffalo, N. Y.

At the close of the war he resumed practice in Kingston, where he died
while still active in his profession. He was an active member of both
the State and County Societies and several times served as Health Officer
of the city. Although he took a prominent part in the politics of the
county, he never held public office outside the profession. His first wife
was Adeline Barber of Roxbury, Delaware County, N. Y., who left two
children, one of them, Kate A., having married Dr. George C. Smith of
Kingston. His second wife was Jane Ann Catlin, by whom he had three
children, two of whom, Harry S. and Dr. Charles W. Crispell, are still
living.

Richard Elting, M. D., was a descendant of Rollif Elting, who came
from Holland and settled at Wiltwyck early in the seventeenth century.
He was the son of Josiah Elting and Hester Brodhead, born at New
Paltz, May 8th, 1795. He received a common school education and
when a young man came to Kingston and commenced the study of medi-
cine with Dr. Henry Van Hoevenberg, an eminent physician of that
place. He later attended medical lectures in New York City, and began
practice in the town of Esopus, residing near Port Ewen until 1859.
From there he removed to Rondout, where he practiced until shortly
before his death on October 28th, 1878. His practice extended over a
large section of country and he became familiarly known to all as “Dr.
Dick Elting.” His professional skill gave him an extended reputation

502

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

and his aid was sought by his professional brethren as well as laymen.
He was a man of decided characteristics, being very positive in his likes
and dislikes. In March, i8i8, he married Elizabeth, daughter of Hon.
Abraham Hasbrouck, of Kingston, by whom he had four daughters.

Dr, George Clark Smith was born at Salem, Rockingham County, New
Hampshire, August 2d, 1833; died in Kingston, April 14th, 1893. He
graduated from Oliver High School, Lawrence, Mass., 1852, and then
prepared to enter Amherst College. He abandoned this intention, how-
ever, and began the study of medicine at the University of the City of
New York, and in 1862 came to Kingston to practice. In August, 1862,
he was appointed Assistant Surgeon of the 156th New York Volunteer
Infantry, and in January, 1864, was promoted to Surgeon. He served
until the close of the war in 1865 and then resumed the practice of medi-
cine in Kingston. He became one of the best known and respected physi-
cians and surgeons of his day, being noted for his rugged honesty and
great kindness of heart. His fellow-practitioners were always pleased to
meet him in consultation, knowing that they would be treated courteously
and would receive the best advice his large experience and knowledge*
could give. He was the first President of the Board of Managers of the
City of Kingston Hospital, but did not live to see the consummation of his
hopes and labors in the completion of the hospital, dying only a few days
before the laying of the cornerstone. He took an active interest in the
public affairs of the city and served in the Board of Supervisors. He
was an active member of both the State and County Medical Societies.

In 1873 he married Kate A., daughter of Dr. Abraham Crispell of
Kingston, and left three children.

Dr. Robert Loughran was born in Hancock, Delaware County, New
York, August 30th, 1834, of Scotch parentage and received a common
school education. He studied medicine with Drs. A. B. and W. C. DeWitt
of Saugerties, N. Y., and graduated from the Albany Medical College in
1857. He was elected to the Assembly in i860 and at the opening of the
Civil War was appointed Assistant Surgeon of the 20th N. Y. State
Militia (one of the three hundred fighting regiments), commanded by
Col. George W. Pratt. After the expiration of their three months’ ser-
vice, the regiment was reorganized for three years’ service. Dr. Loughran
being appointed Surgeon. He served until the close of the war, part of
the time being in charge of the Military General Hospital at City Point,

F. W. Ingalls, M.D.

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THE MEDICAL PROFESSION.

S°3

Va. At the end of the war, after being breveted Lieutenant-Colonel for
meritorius service, he returned to Kingston and resumed the practice of
his profession, becoming one of the most prominent physicians and sur-
geons of his time. He died in Kingston April nth, 1899, at the age of
sixty-four years, having faithfully served his city and county as Member
of Assembly, Supervisor, Health Officer and Alderman, and noted for his
honesty and fearlessness in upholding what he considered the best inter-
ests of his constituents. He was a member of the .First Class of the Legion
of Honor of the Grand Army of the Republic, Surgeon of the Fifth
Division, N. G. S. N. Y., and member of the Medical Societies of the State
and County.

His first wife was Mary, daughter of Edwin W. Budington, who died
one year later, leaving no children. His second wife was Helen, daughter
of Christopher L. Kiersted, by whom he had five children, one daughter
and four sons, two of the latter becoming professional men, Robert L.
studying medicine and Christopher K. law.

Dr. Jacob Chambers, born in Marbletown, February 6th, 1852, was a
son of Dr. George Chambers, who for many years was a prominent
physician of that part of the county. He graduated from Monticello (N.
Y.) Academy in 1869, and afterwards attended Phillips Academy at
Andover, Mass., and Fort Edward (N. Y.) Institute. He studied medi-
cine and graduated from the University of Buffalo, 1875, practiced in
Marbletown until 1882, when he removed to Kingston, where he resided
until his death, September i6th, 1904. He served the city as Health
Officer and was also a member of the first Board of Police Commissioners.
He took an active part in organizing the City of Kingston Hospital, was
a member of the Board of Managers and of the Medical Staff. He was
affiliated with the Medical Society of the County of Ulster, and had served
it in various official positions. Dr. Chambers was one of the best known
physicians of the county and was frequently called in consultation.

He married Florence, daughter of Ex-Sheriff John W. Kerr, by whom
he had two children ; one daughter died in infancy, and one son, Donald,
survived him.

504

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

CHAPTER XLHL
THE NEWSPAPERS OF ULSTER.

By Jay E. Klock.

IN these days when a man starts a newspaper, he asserts in his ‘‘saluta-
tory,” and sometimes really believes, that he is responding to a
popular demand. This was not the case, however, with John Holt,
the pioneer editor of Ulster County. He had no illusions and was aware
that the people cared not a farthing whether he came here or not. News-
papers were not a necessity at a time when it was impossible to gather
news promptly and when most men relied upon the Bible and commenta-
ries thereon for their mental guidance. Holt was a native of Virginia.
He thought in his youth that a business career would suit him, but
changed his mind after going to smash in venture after venture. At
length he drifted into journalism, beginning in 1766 the publication of the
Nezv York Journal and General Advertiser in the city of New York. He
seems to have prospered, for he continued the paper in the Metropolis for
more than a decade. In 1774 he came out boldly as an uncompromising
patriot and removed the king’s arms from the heading of his paper. Con-
sequently, when the British took possession of New York, it became un-
healthy there for Holt. First he fled to Fishkill, and later to Kingston,
where he resumed the publication of his paper under the same name on
July 7, 1777. At that time Kingston was the third town in the State in
population, wealth and importance, yet it consisted of not more than 300
buildings, of which only about one-third were dwelling houses.
The telegraph, the telephone and the railroad were undreamed of. The
coming of the steamboat was a generation in the future. Half a genera-
tion must elapse before the establishment of a stage line between New
York and Albany. Considering everything, the prospect of making a suc-
cess of the enterprise was poor. Holt admitted editorially that the sheet
was not of much account and explained that as yet he had had no oppor-
tunity to place himself in communication with public officers throughout
the country. He urged his countrymen who heard of anything interest-

(T*, K-A-^rx^^ ,

THE NEWSPAPERS OF ULSTER.

505

ing to send him word. The contents of the paper were literary and politi-
cal, and there is a poem upon the erection of the printing press. Mr. Holt
could afford to burst into song in spite of circumstances which would have
discouraged a modern printer. He had a contract to do the State print-
ing for the government, lately located in Kingston, and the very highest
price charged for board was twenty shillings a week. The State printing
was a good thing, since as many as 500 copies of important public docu-
ments were occasionally ordered. Holt continued his business until the
following October, when Kingston was burned, and he removed to Pough-
keepsie.

PROGRESS IN NEWSPAPER MAKING.

Since that time, something like one hundred newspapers have existed
in Ulster County. It is not the purpose of this article to enumerate them
all. A large proportion of them died in their first year, and the mourners
were few. Others merged and experienced changes in title. It is suffi-
cient to sketch those which have strongly influenced the history of the
county or which are now living. In order to understand the progress of
local journalism, it is necessary to bear in mind a few general facts.
Attention has been called already to the date of establishment of modern
methods of transportation and communication. It was between 1830 and
1840 when cylinder presses were first used, before which time cumber-
some modifications of the hand cider press were in vogue. The perfecting
press of the style used to-day first became known to the general public at
the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. It is only a quarter of a cen-
tury since practical type-setting machines have been obtainable. It is
obvious that before the invention of all these facilities the newspaper, in
everything but editorial ability, was trivial in comparison with what it is
to-day. There is scarcely a paper in Ulster County which does not sur-
pass, in its budget of news, the great papers in the great cities a century
ago.

THE GAZETTE.

For fifteen years after Holt’s departure, Ulster County struggled along
without a local newspaper. In 1792 one William Copp started the Farm-
ers' Register, but soon abandoned it for lack of patronage. Shortly
afterward, plucking up fresh courage, he secured Samuel Freer as a
partner and began publishing the Rising Star, which very quickly turned
into a falling star, and Copp drops out of the story. Freer was considereo

5o6

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

rich as fortunes went in those days, and he had an ambitious son, Samuel
S. Freer, who was destined to be Ulster County’s first editor of impor-
tance. In 1798, these two men founded the Ulster County Gazette, which
continued until 1822. The elder Freer died a few years after the estab-
lishment of the paper, but the son carried on the enterprise until he had
exhausted the family fortune, and retired to die in poverty. It is hardly
necessary to remark that men did not enter the newspaper business in
those days to make money. Their motives were a mixture of that strange
vanity which yearns to see its thoughts in print, and of that nobler emo-
tion which leads men to abandon hope of material prosperity in order to
advocate the political and religious principles they hold dear. The Gazette
was from first to last an organ of the Federal party. The younger Freer
was one of the most vigorous writers of his day — so vigorous that he was
fined upon one occasion for expressing his inmost sentiments regarding
the Supreme Court. The first half of the week he spent in getting out his
paper, and during the latter half he distributed it through Ulster and the
adjoining counties, traveling on horseback and stopping wherever he had
a chance to argue with anti-Federalists. In spite of his being so bellicose
politically, he was extremely agreeable in business matters, as is shown by
the fact that he delivered the out-of-town circulation of his rival, the
Plebeian, along with his own, until both papers hired a post-rider in com-
mon. The issue of the Gazette containing the news of the death of George
Washington was carefully preserved by the subscribers, and copies, or at
least reproductions thereof, may be found in every State of the Union.
No other issue of an Ulster County paper has been duplicated by a later
generation.

THE PLEBEIAN AND ARGUS.

The second important county paper was the Ulster Plebeian, established
in Kingston by Jesse Buell in 1802. It was anti-Federal in its politics, and
was edited, almost if not quite, as ably as the Gazette. These two papers
were small in size and poor in nev/s, but have not been surpassed much
by later journals in their editorial and literary features. In 1814 Buell,
having left town and founded the Albany Argus, sold the paper to John
Tappen, who conducted it until 1831, when he died. The paper changed
hands many times during the succeeding years, its various owners being
John J. Tappen, Alonzo P. Stewart, Rodney A. Chipp, Solomon S. Hom-
mel and William Lounsbery. Meanwhile, the name of the paper had been

THE NEWSPAPERS OF ULSTER.

507

changed twice — first to the Ulster Republican, and then to the Kingston
Argus. On May i, 1864, the Argus became the property of Henry G.
Crouch, who conducted it until his death, August 6, 1905, when it passed
into the hands of the Kingston Argus Company, of which Leonard C.
Crouch is president, Oliver Van Steenburgh vice-president, and Walter
Van Steenburgh secretary and treasurer. The Argus is to-day, as it has
been always, an advocate of old-fashioned Democratic principles. Mr.
Crouch had the distinction of occupying the same editorial chair longer
than any other man in this region.

THE JOURNAL.

The next important paper to appear was the Kingston Democratic
Journal, from which title the word “Democratic” was soon dropped. Its
editor, William H. Romeyn, was a Whig, and afterward a Republican.
In 1837 he came to Kingston and started the Political Reformer, and in
1840 bought the Ulster Sentinel, a paper which began in 1826, as a rival
to the Plebeian, but which had recently come over to the Whig side. The
two papers were consolidated and continued as the Journal. Mr. Romeyn
was a strong political writer, of the same school as Messrs. Freer, Buell,
Tappen, Hommel, Lounsbery and Crouch. He continued in the harness
until 1878, when Charles Marseilles purchased his paper and consolidated
it with the Kingston Weekly Freeman, which has since continued to be
published under the title, Kingston Weekly Freeman and Journal.

' THE FREEMAN.

In 1845 Daniel Bradbury and E. S. V/ells started the Rondout Freeman.
Bradbury sold out his interest to Robert Gosman in 1846. In 1847 J- P-
Hageman bought the plant and changed its name to the Rondout Courier.
Mr. Hageman conducted the paper until 1868, when he sold it to W. H.
and J. C. Romeyn, who in turn sold it to Horatio Fowkes in 1877. In
October of that year Mr. Fowkes commenced issuing a daily edition
called the Morning Courier, but both editions were short lived. Mean-
while, in 1858, the name Freeman was revived by Van Keuren and Gilder-
sleeve in a weekly paper at Rondout. In 1865 Horatio Fowkes bought the
property and continued it until 1876, having added a daily edition in 1871
— the Kingston Daily Freeman. In 1876 the Freeman Printing and Pub-
lishing Association, consisting of members of the business and editorial

5o8

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

departments of the paper, secured control of the property and put in a
double cylinder newspaper press with a capacity of about 3,500 impres-
sions an hour, which was considered a great stroke of enterprise at that
time. The Association, however, did not succeed financially, and soon
turned the business over to Samuel D. Coykendall. The latter, in 1878,
sold the business to Charles Marseilles, of Exeter, N. H., who also failed
to achieve success, although he effected a consolidation with the Kingston
Journal, as previously noted. Mr. Coykendall resumed the management of
the Freeman in 1880, continuing until 1891, when he leased and later sold
it to Jay E. Klock, who has since been the publisher. The Freeman be-
came a member of the New York Associated Press in 1871, paying a fee
of over .$9,000, and has had its own leased telegraph wire ever since. The
membership fee was over $9,000. In 1894 the paper purchased a Mergen-
thaler linotype, which does the work of five hand compositors. Since that
time two other linotypes have been added. In 1896 a Web perfecting press
was added, which uses stereotyped forms and prints and folds an eight-
page, seven-column new.spaper at the rate of 200 copies per minute. The
Freeman has developed an extensive job printing business and has about
fifty persons on its payroll. It has been the official paper of the city and
county for more than a generation. Its politics are and have been con-
sistently Republican. Its weekly edition, as already noted, is called the
Kingston Weekly Freeman and Journal.

THE KINGSTON LEADER.

The first issue of the Kingston Daily Leader, a Democratic newspaper,
was dated October ii, 1881. The owners of the paper at that time were
William H. Fredenburgh, John E. VanEtten, Walter S. Fredenburgh and
Rev. John T. Hargraves. After a few weeks Mr. Hargraves’ interest in
the concern was purchased by the other three gentlemen named, Walter S,
Fredenburgh becoming editor of the paper. After three months, John E.
VanEtten and William H. Fredenburgh made a bill of sale of the estab-
lishment to Walter S. Fredenburgh, who conducted it until May 17, 1886,
when, because of ill health, he sold the establishment to John E. Kraft and
John W. Searing. Kraft and Searing continued the publication of the
Leader until November i, 1897, when Mr. Kraft purchased the interest
of Mr. Searing and organized The Leader Company, Mr. Kraft continu-
ing as the publisher and editor. The Kingston Weekly Leader was estab-

THE NEWSPAPERS OF ULSTER.

509

lished during the winter following the establishment of the Dcdly Leader,
The Leader also uses the Mergenthaler linotype.

THE EXPRESS.

The Kingston Daily Express was established June 21, 1891, by Jesse M.
Decker, Urban G. Edinger and Isaac T. Mesereau, under the firm name of
Decker, Edinger & Mesereau. In 1897, Mr. Mesereau sold his one-third
interest in the Express to Louis M. Hoysradt and the firm name was then
changed to Decker, Edinger & Hoysradt. In 1903, Mr. Hoysradt sold
his interest to Floyd G. Edinger, a son of Urban G. Edinger, and the
name of the firm was then changed to Decker, Edinger & Edinger. The
Express plant is equipped with electric motors, a steam engine, a double
cylinder press and a Mergenthaler linotype machine. It also has a well
equipped job printing plant. The Express is independent in politics.

VILLAGE NEWSPAPERS.

The Saugerties Telegraph was founded in 1846 by Solomon S. Hom-
mel, who afterward edited the Kingston Argus, Mr. Hommel sold the
Telegraph in the early ’50’s to Freligh & Gates, who sold out to William
Hull about the year 1855, and about 1859 or i860 Mr. Hull sold to Elting
& Rosepaugh, who continued the partnership a few years, when Mr.
Elting purchased Mr. Rosepaugh’s interest and continued its publication
until September 16, 1897, when he sold the paper to James T. Maxwell,
who organized a stock company known as the Saugerties Telegraph
Printing and Publishing Company, who are the present owners.

The Saugerties Post, a daily paper, was founded February 21, 1877, ^7
Edward Jernegan, who continued sole owner until 1880, when he formed a
partnership with Arthur L. Hale, who continued with him under the firm
name of Jernegan and Hale until 1890, when Mr. Hale sold his interest
to Irwin Ronk of Kingston. Mr. Jernegan continued with Mr. Ronk
until 1896, when he disposed of his interest to James R. Wood, of Kings-
ton, who remained with Mr. Ronk until 1901, when the Post was pur-
chased by J. W. Frankel, who soon after sold it to the Saugerties Tele-
graph Printing and Publishing Company, who are the present owners.
The president of the company is James T. Maxwell, the vice-president
Robert A. Snyder, the secretary Joseph W. Frankel, and the treasurer and
business manager, Edward Jernegan.

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

510

The Saugerties Telegraph issued a daily paper, called the Daily Tele-
graph, with Mr. Jernegan as editor, from September 16, 1897, to April 15,
1901, when it was discontinued to be consolidated with the Daily Post.
Both the Telegraph and Post are independent in politics.

The Ellenville Journal was founded in 1849 ^7 Robert Denton. It was
purchased in 1857 by S. M. Taylor, who sold it in 1859, but re-purchased
it in 1861, since which time, with a few temporary changes, he has con-
ducted it. It is Republican in politics.

The South Ulster Press, now the Ellenville Press, was begun in 1870 by
Thomas E. Benedict and Brother. When President Cleveland appointed
Mr. Benedict Public Printer, these two brothers went to Washington,
turning over their paper to their younger brother, Louis R. Benedict, who
sold it in 1893 to W. C. McNally, a gentleman who had been prominent in
Orange, Wyoming and Delaware county journals for many years. The
Press is Democratic in politics and is exceedingly prosperous.

The New Palis Independent was started in 1868 by the Independent
Association, of which Easton Van Wagenen was secretary. The Associa-
tion consisted of about 80 stockholders. Ralph Le Fevre became editor
of the paper in 1869, purchasing it of the Association about two years
afterward, and has since remained the editor and proprietor. Mr. Le
Fevre has won a wide reputation as the historian of the Ulster County
Huguenots. The Independent is Republican.

The New Palis Times has been from its beginning a Democratic news-
paper. It was founded in i860 by Charles J. Ackert, who conducted it
until his death in 1900, except while he served in the army during the
Civil War, when it was managed by his wife, who is now the proprietress.

The Pine Hill Sentinel was founded in 1886 by Wilson Bertrand, who
sold it in 1890 to U. S. Grant Cure, who has since been its publisher. It
is a Republican paper.

The Pine Hill Optic was started in 1892 by E. S. Tompkins, who has
conducted it since that time as a Democratic paper.

The Marlborough Record, first called the Pegasus and later the Prog-
ress, was started in 1885 by Charles H. Cochrane and E. H. Bulkeley. In
1887 it was purchased by Egbert E. Carr, who conducted it for

THE NEWSPAPERS OF ULSTER.

511

five years, when he sold a half interest to Charles E. Westervelt, who pur-
chased Mr. Carr’s remaining interest in 1902, and has conducted it up to
date. The Record is independent politically.

The Highland Independent, an independent newspaper, founded in
1887, is conducted by Hector and Miss C. W. Sears.

The Gardiner Weekly, independent, was founded in 1882, and, until a
few years ago, was conducted by Hector Sears, who sold it to Charles
Slater, the present publisher.

The Rosendale Journal, independent, was started by Marvin E. Parrott
in 1899. It was afterward purchased by Isaac T. Mesereau, who has
since continued as proprietor.

512

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

CHAPTER XLIV.

THE MASONIC FRATERNITY.

By Hon. John E. Kraft.

KINGSTON LODGE, NO. 10, F. & A. M.

WHEN Kingston was burned by the British Army in 1777,
the records of the Masonic Fraternity in Ulster County
were destroyed. Consequently there is no written history
of the craft in Ulster before that date. A Masonic Lodge
existed in Kingston long before the War of the Revolution
under a dispensation of the Country Grand Lodge, and was visited by
many distinguished brethren from other jurisdictions. When Washing-
ton visited Kingston in 1782 the members of the lodge, then known as
Livingston Lodge, No. 23, called upon him in a body at the house of
General Wynkoop on Green street, and requested him to open a communi-
cation of the lodge in due and ancient form, he being a past master of
his own lodge at Alexandria, Virginia. The great General complied with
their request, and opened the lodge, after which he went to the First
Dutch Church, the Consistory of which presented to him their address of
welcome, his reply to which, in his own handwriting, is in the vestibule of
the present church edifice. During the anti-Masonic excitement which
prevailed in this State early in the last century, the copper plate from
which was engraved upon parchment the certificates of membership in
Livingston Lodge, was buried in the First Dutch Churchyard for safe-
keeping, and remained there until about twenty years ago, when it was
dug up and presented to Judge Clearwater. It now has a place with other
relics of pre-revolutionary Kingston in the Judge’s residence on Albany
avenue. It is understood that it is his intention eventually to present it
to Kingston Lodge, No. 10.

Unfortunately the minutes of the meetings of the Fraternity up to
the year 1790 are lost, and therefore Kingston Lodge, No. 10, took the
latter date as that of its own organization, with Brother John Addison as
its first Master. Records of the regular meetings of Livingston Lodge,

THE MASONIC FRATERNITY.

513

No. 23, however, up to the 26th day of December, 1805, are still in exist-
ence. For some reason, not known, the charter of the lodge was sur-
rendered until the 28th of August, 1808, when it was reorganized under
the name of Kingston Lodge, No. 23, with Brother Moses Cantine as
Master. At that time the Hon. DeWitt Clinton was Grand Master of the
State of New York, and had on various occasions visited with the brethren
in Kingston.

The regular communications of the lodge were held every full moon
in a room in the old Court House. It was the rule in those days to have
a grand celebration on the 24th day of June, being St. John’s Day. The
brethren would march to the First Dutch Church, and listen to an eloquent
discourse by the minister, and then march over to one of the taverns,
where a grand banquet would be spread, after which toasts would be
responded to by various brethren.

On the first day of December, 1821, Kingston Lodge proceeded to the
house of Isaac L. Hasbrouck, in the town of Marbletown, and instituted
Rising Sun Lodge, No. 336, which existed a few years, and then sur-
rendered its charter.

On the 17th of September, 1824, a large number of brethren of Kingston
Lodge, upon special invitation, visited Red Hook and took part with the
brethren of that village in welcoming the illustrious Gen. Marquis De
Lafayette, who stopped there on his memorable trip up the Hudson River.

Kingston and Rondout were naturally much exercised over the building
of the waterway that was to connect the Delaware and Hudson rivers.
In the old lodge record of 1826 is the following interesting account : “The
Lodge was invited by the managers of the Delaware and Hudson Canal
Company to take part in their canal completion celebration. The invitation
was accepted, and the brethren proceeded to Eddyville in carriages, formed
in procession after arriving (headed by the Master), proceeded to the
tide-water lock, and there laid the cap-stone in due Masonic form, which
completed this great artificial channel from the Delaware to the Hudson
River. Brother Myer delivered the address upon this occasion, which was
extremely able, and listened to by the vast crowd of spectators with
marked attention. At the conclusion of these services the members of the
lodge and other guests were invited by the managers of the canal on board
of a float fitted up expressly for the occasion, and proceeded several miles
up the canal. A band accompanied the party and discoursed sweet music

514

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

for the excursionists, and upon their return to tide-water the whole party
partook of a bountiful repast provided at the house of Mr. H. Radcliff.”
This latter entertainment, we think, must have been at the expense of the
lodge, as we find by their proceedings the ‘Tull moon” following that
$75.96 was appropriated from the lodge fund to pay for dinners at Eddy-
ville, written in the bold, legible handwriting of John Van Buren, then
secretary of Kingston Lodge.

From 1808 to 1829 the work and transactions of the lodge were care-
fully transcribed. On the minutes in the latter year. Brother John Van
Buren was elected Master. For three or four years, no work was
done by the lodge. A few members met each year and re-elected the
old officers to their various positions. Although these devoted brethren
met secretly and kept the organization of the lodge intact, they kept no
record from 1833 to 1850, on account of the anti-Masonic sentiment pre-
vailing throughout the country, because of the Morgan trouble. When
the unpopularity of Freemasonry died out, the brethren got together on
the 13th of November, 1850, and accepted a new charter that had been
granted by the Grand Lodge to Kingston Lodge, No. 10, with the Vener-
able Brother John Van Buren still its master. Since that time Free-
masonry has prospered in Ulster County, Kingston Lodge becoming one
of the leading lodges in the State, and several other lodges being organized
from it.

In 1854 consent was granted by Kingston Lodge to establish Rondout
Lodge, No. 343, fifteen members of Kingston Lodge having signed the
application.

On the 19th of June, 1855, a number of brethren of Kingston Lodge
who lived in the western section of Ulster County, and eastern portion of
Delaware County, were granted a dispensation to organize Margaretville
Lodge, No. 389.

During the dark days of the Civil War, Kingston Lodge mourned the
death of a number of its members. On the 14th of September, 1862, the
lodge in a body attended the funeral at Albany of its illustrious Brother
George W. Pratt, Colonel of the 20th N. Y. S. M. He died at Albany
from the effects of a wound received at Bull Run, Virginia, while nobly
leading his regiment to battle.

In 1863 was celebrated in Kingston one of the greatest Masonic events
that had ever occurred along the Hudson River. The brethren had

THE MASONIC FRATERNITY.

515

resolved to celebrate the anniversary of St. John the Baptist. Applica-
tion was made for the use of the First Reformed Church of Kingston, in
which to have the address delivered, but objection being made by certain
ones having control of the church, the matter was not urged, and the
brethren determined to erect the speaker’s stand in the open air. On the
day in question, a large body of Masons, numbering about 450, who had
come from Saugerties, Rhinebeck, Poughkeepsie and other river towns,
assembled with the Masons of Kingston and Rondout on the Strand, near
the Mansion House, formed in procession, and headed by the Rondout
band, marched through the upper streets, and halted at the Academy
Green. The ceremonies here were impressive. Rev. J. C. Edmunds,
acting as chaplain, addressed the Throne of Grace, which was followed by
the entire body singing. The orator of the day was the Hon. Darius A.
Ogden of Penn Yan, one of the most eloquent and forceful speakers of
the times. At the close of the exercises the procession re-formed and
marched to the old Armory (now St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church),
where a bountiful repast had been spread. Tables had been set the entire
length of the building, and there were seated nearly five hundred persons,
who participated in the banquet. Toasts were drank, and many eloquent
speeches were made.

On the 21 St of June, 1864, Kingston Lodge granted permission to the
brethren at Ellenville to organize Wawarsing Lodge, No. 582.

While Rev. Charles W. Camp was Master of the lodge, in 1883, a
trained band of craftsmen was organized for the purpose of beautifying
the interesting ceremony of the third degree. The success of this
feature of the work has attracted the attention of Freemasons all over the
country, and has been the means of leading many lodges to imitate the
same ; in fact there is scarcely a Masonic lodge of any pretense that does
not now have such a band of craftsmen.

When it became positively known in 1883 that the crew of the Arctic
exploring steamer Jeanette must have perished, and the whole world was
stunned with the news, Kingston Lodge mourned the loss of a distin-
guished brother, and placed the following memorial in the archives of
the lodge :

^ THIS MEMORIAL

Is entered in the Records of Kingston Lodge in fraternal memory of

our late Brother,

LIEUT. CHARLES WINANS CHIEF, U. S. N.

5i6 the county OF ULSTER.

He was initiated an Entered Apprentice, passed to the degree of Fellow
Craft, and raised to the sublime degree of Master Mason at
Shanghai, in the Empire of China, in Naval Lodge, and affiliated
in Kingston Lodge, No. lo, October 29, 1872.

He entered the United States Naval Academy at Newport, Rhode Island,
in 1863, and was attached to the Arctic exploring steamer Jeanette,
as Executive Officer, in June, 1879.

HE PERISHED AT SEA,

Probably on the night of September 12, 1881, aged 33 years.
“Palmam qui meruit ferat.”

His services and history are recorded in the archives of the Nation
^WE CHERISH HIS MEMORY HERET
Several times during the existence of Kingston Lodge its beautiful
rooms have been thrown open for social intercourse and entertainment,
one of the most popular being the grand Masonic fair, that was held in
May, 1888, which added to the funds of the lodge upwards of $4,000.

A dispensation from the Grand Master authorizing and appointing
^Worshipful Brother Christopher N. DeWitt Master of the lodge, at that
time to act in his stead, proceeded with the members of the lodge to
Rosendale, and in due Masonic form laid the cornerstone of the Reformed
Church in that village on the 7th day of December, 1895.

The following named lodges, now out of existence, were located,
according to Grand Lodge records, in the County of Ulster, Newburgh
and Middletown being formerly in Ulster County :

Steuben— Newburgh, September 27th, 1788.

James, No. 85 — Middletown, January 6th, 1798.

Moriah, No. 67 — Marbletown, January 8th, 1798.

Rising Sun, No. 336 — Marbletown, December ist, 1821.

United-— Marlborough, April 3d, 1804.

Columbia, No. 207 — New Paltz, July loth, 1812.

The Lodges in Ulster County, now in existence, are :

Kingston, No. 10 — Kingston, December 8th, 1790.

Ulster, No. 193 — Saugerties, December 27th, 1850.

Rondout, No. 343 — Rondout, July 8th, 1854.

Wawarsing, No. 582 — Ellenville, June 13th, 1864.

Adonai, No. 718 — Highland, June nth, 1872.

THE SCHOOLS OF THE COUNTY.

517

CHAPTER XLV.

THE SCHOOLS OF THE COUNTY.

By Professor S. R. Shear.

The chief object of the English settler in America was to found a
Christian State; this thought was paramount to every other con-
sideration. At home he had been persecuted, by bigots; he had
suffered for his religious belief ; now he would have a home where he
could worship God according to the dictates of his conscience.

The Englishman knew nothing of common schools, and there was no
reason why he should be particularly concerned about them after he came
to America. In 1671 Sir William Berkeley wrote: ‘T thank God there
are no free schools nor printing, and I hope we shall not have these for
a hundred years; for learning has brought disobedience and heresy and
sects into the world, and printing has divulged them and libels against
the best government. God keep us from both !”

Although hostility to the common schools was greater in Virginia than
elsewhere in the English colonies, we find throughout all the colonies a
larger interest in higher education for the privileged few than in a general
education for all.

The Dutch settlers inherited different customs and different ideals.
Taine says that in culture and instruction, the Dutch are two centuries
ahead of the rest of Europe. If that is true to-day, it must have been
more so 275 years ago. The Dutchman was a trader ; and while he was
not less religious than his English neighbors, Holland had been too long a
home for the persecuted of all Europe, for the Dutch settler in America
to give great concern to religious freedom. He had enjoyed it at home,
and he expected as a matter of course, that those privileges would be
continued to him in a new world. He was, however, largely interested
in general education, and we are not surprised to find provision for
schools in the “Charter of Freedoms and Exemptions” granted the set-
tlement of New Netherlands in 1629, and we find the first public school
in America was opened in New Amsterdam in 1633 ; the teacher of this

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

518

school was Adam Roelandson. In 1652, New Amsterdam obtained a
municipal charter and a second school was opened.

In 1664 the English assumed control of New Netherlands and con-
tinued in control with the exception of one year, until the Revolution.
After the English occupation, elementary education declined in New York,
and it would have died out altogether had it not been for the existence
of certain Dutch communities where schools were maintained by public
taxation. From 1664 to I775> the colonial legislature of New York
passed but three acts concerning education, none of which related to com-
mon schools. It is a fair inference, therefore, that to the Dutch we owe
the origin, the preservation and development of the common school idea
in New York.

Higher education was encouraged by the English, but it was not until
1795 that any action was taken toward an appropriation for common
schools; from that time forward, educational activities were continuous
and fruitful.

The history of the schools of Ulster County is a part of the annals of
legislation affecting all the State. We have found that the first public
schools were established in New Amsterdam. As towns were erected
along the Hudson, it was the uniform practice to reserve lots for school
sites, and houses were built thereon; thus at the close of the eighteenth
century, there were public schools at Esopus, Albany and other places
along the river.

In 1812, the Legislature passed a law providing that each town in the
State be divided into districts, by three commissioners elected by the
voters of that town. The law further provided that three school trustees
be elected in each district. Under this act, the towns of New Paltz,
Saugerties, Marlborough, Shawangunk, Plattekill, Esopus, Hurley, Mar-
bletowU) Rochester, Wa warsing, Shandaken, Woodstock and Kingston
were divided into districts and local officers elected. Later on, as Lloyd,
Rosendale, Gardiner, Olive, Denning, Hardenburgh and Ulster were in-
corporated as towns, they were divided into districts according to law.

About this early period of the district schools, little is known. The
school buildings were primitve; the teachers were in the main, poorly
prepared for their work and illy paid, and the school year for the older
pupils at least, was very short. The early school rooms were unique;
on either side were rows of desks facing the middle of the room ; injured

THE SCHOOLS OF THE COUNTY.

519

dignity breathed from every desk. Severely plain were they, yet upon
their faces were the monograms of generations ; drawing and carving had
never been taught, but both were practiced by every boy and by many
girls. As the children sat in their seats, they resembled partly closed jack-
knives ; the angle between the seat and its back being keenly acute. From
the teacher would come the order: “Sit up straight and give attention”;
the order was obeyed as fully as possible, as are all such orders. Down
the middle of the room were three objects of peculiar interest. In the
center stood the stove which roared and crackled like some creature
chained against his will; while those nearest it squirmed and writhed
beneath its fervid heat, those in distant parts of the room shivered and
beheld the suffering of the favored few with mingled feelings of envy and
dread. Near the door stood the teacher’s desk, while behind it stood the
teacher.

Such were the schools of a century ago, but from those schools came
boys and girls trained in adversity, inured to hardship, habituated to per-
sistence, accustomed to work out difficulties; boys and girls who would
scorn to do a mean thing; who were afraid to be cowardly. From those
schools came the founders of our nation; men and women whom the
world learned to respect.

In 1840 an act was passed by the Legislature providing for the biennial
appointment of county superintendents by the Board of Supervisors ; this
act was very unpopular and it was repealed in 1847. Four years after the
act providing for county superintendents, the office of town superintendent
was created, and continued until 1856, at which time the office of school
commissioner was created practically as it exists at present.

Ulster County was divided into three commissioner districts. Some of
the most prominent men of the different towns served as town commis-
sioners, town superintendents and school commissioners. Among the
most successful school commissioners may be mentioned William H.Dede-
rick, Cornelius Van Santvoord, H. H. Holden, John J. Moran, of the first
district; Frank Willigan, M. W. Baldwin, George Terwilliger, Peter
LeFevre, of the second district ; Leonard Davis, E. C. Douglas and John
Schoonmaker of the third district. The commissioners serving at present
are : Edmund M. Wilbur, Melvin G. Rhodes and Thomas C. Perry.

520

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

The following table gives a synopsis of the schools in 1880 :

No. of

New Paltz .
Saugerties . .
Marlborough

Esopus

Lloyd

Hurley

Shawangunk
Plattekill . . .
Marbletown
Rochester . .
Rosendale . .
Wawarsing .

Gardiner

Olive

Shandaken .
Woodstock .
Hardenburgh

Denning

Ulster

No.

District.

Pupils in Average
District. Attendance.
641
4012

1034

1653

1087

996

1499

1445

1502

3144

643

1096

889

611

296

399

173

1126

332

475

345

302

404

396

420

1071

177

287

252

163

117

The following table was prepared from the last report of the school
commissioners in the three districts of the county.

No. of

No. Pupils in Average
District. District. Attendance.

New Paltz 6 449 290

Saugerties 21 1717 1167

Marlborough 7 698 436

Esopus 16 877 589

Lloyd 8 463 299

Hurley 7 341 195

Shawangunk 13 475 274

Plattekill ii 420 249

Marbetown 13 61 1 380

Rochester 16 598 381

Rosendale 7 853 498

Wawarsing 30 1434 969

Gardiner 9 31 1 182

Olive 13 534 312

Shandaken 12 659 389

Woodstock 7 314 215

Hardenburgh 10 194 103

Denning 10 166 96

Ulster 8 681 356

Kingston 2 76 46

A comparison of the tables will indicate something of the educational
tendencies. Data with reference to the value of property in 1880 is not
available, but there has been a gradual improvement in school buildings
and school equipment. There has been a gradual diminution in the

THE SCHOOLS OF THE COUNTY.

521

number of pupils assigned to a given teacher, hence a gradual increase in
the number of teachers in the county. It will be seen also that there are
less districts at present than in 1880. There is a gradual tendency toward
consolidation for the benefit of weaker districts. It will be observed
also that the average daily attendance as compared with the number of
pupils of school age is very much greater than was true twenty-six years
ago. This is due to the beneficial effects of a wise compulsory education
law thoroughly administered. The total expenses for all school purposes
has been very greatly increased, which means better remuneration for
teachers, and consequently a better grade of instruction.

At present the rural schools of Ulster County compare favorably with
those of any county in the State. There is increased interest on the part
of all concerned, and a strong effort is being made to secure value received
for every dollar spent for educational purposes.

Four chief educational centers of the county are worthy of especial
note: Ellenville, Kingston, New Paltz and Saugerties.

KINGSTON.

The first school teacher in Esopus, afterward Kingston, was Andries
VanderSluys, who obtained his authority from director-general Peter
Stuyvesant. This was soon after the municipal charter of New Amster-
dam was granted, or about 1652. During the next seventy-five years, the
Dutch inhabitants of Kingston, despite the negative influence of the
English authorities, maintained free schools by taxation.

The legislative act requiring a State to be divided into school districts
and providing for a superintendent of common schools, was passed in
1812. At this time there were within the present corporate limits of the
city of Kingston an Academy and several private English schools. The
most famous of these schools was held in a frame house on Green street ;
this school was taught for more than thirty years by Solomon Hasbrouck.

Agreeable to the provisions of the law, the territory comprising the
present city, together with considerable adjacent territory, became dis-
tricts Nos. 7 and 8. District No. 7 was the easterly or Rondout portion,
and No. 8 was the westerly or Kingston section. As the population in-
creased, more accommodations became necessary, and other districts were
set off from time to time from the two original districts. In 1839, dis-
tricts Nos. II and 12 were taken from No. 8; later districts Nos. 5 and

522

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

15 were set off also. In 1850, No. 10 was set off from No. 7, and in
1853, No. 13 became a separate district.

The first public school building in the original district No. 8 was the
building on Green street in which Solomon Hasbrouck had conducted a
private school. The first building occupied for school purposes in No.
7 was the frame building near the junction of Wurts and Abeel streets.

In 1854, the value of all public school property in Kingston was ap-
proximately $21,000. There were eight buildings containing accommo-
dations for 800 pupils. The population of the districts was about 8,000,
and the school population about 2,000. In 1862, districts Nos. 5, 8, ii and
15 were united into one union free school district, to be known as the
Kingston School District, and Charles R. Abbott became the first superin-
tendent of schools. In 1864, Kingston Academy was transferred in trust
to the Kingston Board of Education, on condition that it should be for-
ever maintained as a free public high school, fitting pupils for the various
colleges of the land. In 1864, No. 13 became a union free school district.
During the principalship of William A. McConnell, the building was
enlarged, the library facilities greatly increased, the curriculum enriched,
and a high school department was chartered by the Regents of the
University.

KINGSTON ACADEMY.

On April 19th, 1769, Charles DeWitt received a letter from Chauncey
Graham of Fishkill, proposing to open an academy in either Albany or
'Kingston, This matter was under discussion for some years, but definite
action was deferred until October nth, 1773. At that time it was decided
to secure accommodations and hire two teachers to instruct students in the
classics, sciences, mathematics and English; thus was planted the germ
from which Kingston Academy sprang.

The next year, 1774, “The Trustees of the Freeholders and Common-
alty of the Town of Kingston” purchased a house and lot on the south-
west corner of John and Crown streets, and selected John Addison as the
first principal of Kingston Academy. The names of the founders were
Derick Wynkoop, Joseph Gasherie, Johannis Persen, Silvester Salisbury,
Christopher Tappen, Adam Persen, Johannis DuBois, Abraham Van-
Gaasbeek, Johannis Sleight, Ezekiel Masten and Wilhelmus Houghtaling.

The history of this time-honored institution for the succeeding century
is fraught with interest. The school took high rank despite many adverse

THE SCHOOLS OF THE COUNTY.

523

circumstances. On October i6th, 1777, the building was burned by the
British Army, in command of General John Vaughan, but in less
than five months it was rebuilt, and the students continued their work as
though nothing had happened. A copy of an old rate bill of that period
bears the names of ninety-three students who were members of the Eng-
lish department. The first commencement exercises of the Academy
were held in the spring of 1778 at the Bogardus tavern.

In November, 1779, John McMillan succeeded Principal Addison. In
October, 1788, George B. Ewart was engaged to teach Greek, Latin and
the higher English branches, but Mr. Ewart’s work was unsatisfactory;
the students made slow progress and the school began to decline. In
January, 1791, it was resolved by the Trustees that the corporation become
a member of the Lmiversity of the State of New York. At this time the
Academy was closed for a year on account of the small attendance.

In December, 1792, Timothy T. Smith was elected principal, and the
Academy entered upon a new era of success. After several applications
it was finally incorporated by the Regents of the University, February
3d, 1795. At that time the curriculum included ancient languages, mathe-
matics, philosophy, history and civil government. In addition to the
regular tuition fees, each student was required to furnish two loads of
fire wood, or its cash equivalent. Some of the early principals suggested
increasing their stipend by taking a portion of the tuition, but for a long
time the Trustees opposed this plan as tending to lower the standard of
the Academy.

During the early days of the Academy one of the most pleasing prac-
tices was the semi-annual examination by the Trustees. On these occa-
sions the village was in holiday attire ; hospitality was free and bountiful ;
public dinners were held, followed by literary exercises, and in the even-
ing the young people enjoyed the dance.

From funds received from the Regents of the University, and secured
through other means, an Academy library was established in 1795. This
library contained 103 volumes of standard literature, most of which are
still on the present library shelves. A perusal and appreciation of these
books would require the mature mind of an adult, but they indicate the
scholarly habits of those early days. A part of the original equipment of
the library was a pair of valuable globes, which long since disappeared.

Soon after the act of incorporation a room was set apart for the teach-

524

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

ing of reading, writing and arithmetic. In February, 1804, the Trustees
applied to the legislature for permission to found a college, but this was
denied, and the fund in hand for the purpose was deeded to the Academy ;
this deed conveyed 800 acres of land, including the present academy site.

Up to 1800, the school had been devoted almost entirely to the
classical department; the rooms in which the English branches were
taught were regarded outside of the Academy proper. This branch of the
school was abolished altogether in 1812, and rented to other parties until
1817. Up to 1809 the Academy was devoted to boys and young men ex-
clusively, no women being admitted. Then for nearly three years a
woman teacher was employed for a class of girls. This class also was
discontinued from 1812 to 1817. At that time Rev. Malbone Kenyon
took charge, and he was permitted to open a room for young ladies, but
this permission was discontinued in 1820. From 1820 to 1823 the
Academy declined until scarcely a dozen students could be gathered. Rev.
Daniel Parker was then engaged as principal ; coeducation was introduced
and some elementary subjects were allowed. A resolution adopted April
21, 1837, indicates the complete satisfaction with both measures. In 1830
a small building was erected on the present site, and to this, additions have
been made from time to time.

As early as 1862 the matter of adopting the graded school system was
discussed. This question continued to be agitated until 1864, when the
Academy was formally turned over to the Kingston Board of Education.

In 1865, Francis Wynkoop gave $5,000, the income of which was to be
forever devoted to the instruction of a French class in Kingston free
high school. Membership to this class was to be determined by exemplary
conduct.

During the 132 years since its organization there have been educated
in Kingston Academy thousands of men and women, many of whom
have taken front rank in higher institutions of learning, and many after-
wards became prominent in political, professional and commercial lines,
while many have rendered notable service to their country.

Among the principals may be mentioned Rev. Daniel Parker, Charles
L. Hungerford, Rev. John Van Vleck, John Norton Pomeroy, Joseph C.
Wyckoff, Francis J. Cheney and Henry W. Callahan. The present prin-
cipal is Myron J. Michael, who has served in that capacity for the past
ten years.

THE SCHOOLS OF THE COUNTY.

525

Some of the most distinguished citizens of Kingston have served on
the Board of Trustees, notably the Rev. Dr. Gosman, Rev. Mr. Lillie,
Marius Schoonmaker, and Rev. J. C. F. Hoes.

ULSTER ACADEMY.

In 1870, Charles M. Ryon, principal of No. 13, was elected principal
in district No. 7, and then began a most vigorous campaign of im-
provement. The old school building and site, corner of Wurts and
Pierpont streets, were sold to the present owners, and all but six rooms
and the tower of the present building were constructed and furnished at a
cost of over $36,000. At that time less than 150 pupils were enrolled in
this school. The new building opened with an attendance of over 300
pupils, and at the end of three years the enrollment was 800. Thorough
organization and discipline prevailed ; the course of study was system-
atized ; trained teachers were employed, and excellent results obtained.

In 1879, under the principalship of Mr. L, M. Edwards, it was changed
to a union free school district, and in 1880 a high school department was
chartered by the Regents of the University. In 1898, Ulster Academy
was chartered as a high school. Under the principalship of the late
William E. Bunten the building was enlarged, and it now contains twenty-
five well-lighted, thoroughly heated and ventilated rooms.

During the past twenty-five years, Ulster Academy has maintained a
high standard of scholarship. Since its incorporation as a high school its
graduates have taken high rank in our colleges, technical schools and
normal schools. One of the important means by which this school has
conserved its usefulness is its library of nearly 4,000 well selected and
thoroughly classified books.

The present principal is John E. Shull, who has served since 1898.

CONSOLIDATION.

In 1876, school commissioner Edward Ryer ordered that the school
districts in Kingston City should be designated as follows: No. 12 should
be No. I ; No. 7 should be No. 2; No. 10 should be No. 3; No. 13 should
be No. 4; and Kingston School district, comprising Nos. 5, 8, ii and 15,
should be called No. 5. In 1902, by act of the legislature, all these
schools were consolidated under one system. The original Board of Edu-
cation named in the act were Conrad Hiltebrant, for a long time promi-

526

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

nent as a trustee of Ulster Academy; Walter N. Gill, who had rendered
signal service in school No. 4; W. Scott Gillespie, Henry C. Connelly,
Walter C. Dolson and DuBois G. Atkins, all of whom had been for a long
time prominently identified with the schools of Kingston school district;
Isaac N. Weiner, Henry R. Brigham and Bernard Loughran. The Board
so named organized and elected officers as follows: President, DuBois
G. Atkins; Vice-President, Walter N. Gill; Superintendent of Schools,
S. R. Shear.

The Board remains intact as to members and officers, with two excep-
tions— Mr. Weiner was succeeded by A. Wesley Thompson, who resigned
to accept the office of Mayor, and his place was filled by the election of
Dr. Walter D. Hasbrouck, and John J. Campbell has taken the place of
Bernard Loughran, deceased.

Among the distinguished men who have served the schools of the
city as trustees, are Hon. Marius Schoonmaker and Elisha M. Brigham,
each of whom was president of the Kingston Board of Education for
many years; D. B. Abbey and John N. Cordts in district No. 4, Mr. Wil-
liam Winter in district No. 2.

The most notable teacher and executive who has been connected with
the Kingston schools is Charles M. Ryon. He reorganized district No. 4;
he placed district No. 2 in a prominent position in the educational field;
he was superintendent of Kingston school district for nearly thirty years,
placing these schools in the forefront, and he is at present the efficient
supervisor of penmanship for all the schools of the city. Mr. Ryon is a
scholar, a gentleman, an executive and a thorough educator. The recent
history of Kingston Public Schools is largely the history of this man’s life.

There are at present ten public school buildings in the city; the build-
ings and sites together with equipment are valued at $367,903.86. The
school population is 5,650, of which 4,355 are enrolled in the public
schools. There are 105 teachers and supervisors beside various other
employees. The' annual expenditures are about $100,000. Every effort
is made by the citizens to maintain a thoroughly progressive, practical
and efficient school administration.

NEW PALTZ.

New Paltz has been for over 200 years one of the chief educational
centers of Ulster County. To the Huguenots is due the credit of organ-

THE SCHOOLS OF THE COUNTY.

527

izing and maintaining schools during the early period of settlement of
this section of the county. The French language prevailed not only in
the home and in the church, but in the school from 1677 to 1735, being
gradually supplanted by the Dutch language. History has preserved the
names of two early French schoolmasters, Jean Tebenin, who wielded the
birchen scepter from 1696 to 1700, and Jean Cottin, who taught at prob-
ably an earlier period.

In this connection it is worthy of mention that the stones from the
building used as a church from 1717 to 1773 were used to construct the
building occupied for school purposes from 1773 to 1874, a period of loi
years. This building was afterward remodeled, and is now (1906)
occupied by John Drake as a dwelling. In 1874, a brick school building
with two large rooms was erected, which structure still remains intact.

True to the spirit of the age, the people of New Paltz in 1828 estab-
lished a classical school for the benefit of the well favored, and for those
fitting for the professions. The sessions of this organization were held in
the upper story of the public school. Among the principal organizers of
this forerunner of New Paltz Academy may be mentioned Dr. Jacob
Wurts, Rev. William R. Bogardus, Peter Eltinge, Solomon Eltinge, Jacob
Eltinge, Zachariah Freer, Philip Deyo, Mary DuBois, Nathaniel LeFevre,
Jacob I. Schoonmaker, Roelill Hasbrouck, Jacob J. Hasbrouck, Maurice
Hasbrouck, Josiah R. Eltinge, Dr. John Bogardus and Daniel DuBois.
The first president was William R. Bogardus and the first secretary was
Benjamin Van Wagenen.

So great was the demand for higher education that the organizers of
the classical school saw the necessity for enlarged accommodations and a
broader curriculum. As a result, the New Paltz Academy was incor-
porated in 1833 with the following Board of Trustees: Rev. Dow Van
Olinda, Jacob J. Hasbrouck, Dr. John Bogardus, Benjamin Van Wagenen,
Levi Flasbrouck, Solomon E. Eltinge, Peter Eltinge, Josiah DuBois, and
Jesse Eltinge. The original capital was $2,500, but that sum was after-
ward greatly increased. The first president of the Board of Trustees of
New Paltz Academy was Rev. Dow Van Olinda. Among his successors
were Solomon E. Eltinge, Derick W. Eltinge, Alfred Deyo and Ralph
LeFevre; Mr. LeFevre became president in 1881, and he still serves in
that capacity, though the organization has now only a nominal exist mce.

The first principal of the New Paltz Academy was Eliphaz Fay, a man

528

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

of broad scholarship, large executive ability and manifold talents. Under
his efficient management the school grew and prospered ; its membership
came from far and near. An all-round education was Mr. Fay’s motto,
and the work done in the Academy at that time would compare favorably
with that done in many of our best secondary schools to-day.

In 1841, Principal Fay resigned to accept the presidency of an Eastern
college. He remained in that position for three years, during which time
William Parker served as principal. In 1844, Mr. Fay returned to New
Paltz as principal, and remained until 1847. Following that year, Mr.
Munsell, Mr. Butler, Mr. Steele, Rev. J. Sinclair, Frederick R. Brace,
John H. Post and Mr. Walsh served in the order named. In 1861, Prin-
cipal Walsh resigned to enter the army, and D. M. DeWitt was elected
principal. In 1862, Mr. DeWitt’s election as District Attorney of the
County necessitated his resignation. Charles H. Hayward, Henry Gal-
lup, Jared Hasbrouck and Dr. H. M. Bauscher served during the time
from 1862 to 1881.

The administration of Dr. Bauscher from 1867 to 1881 was notable in
many ways. He was a German, and a thorough student; possessed of
much energy, he imparted enthusiasm to all with whom he came in con-
tact ; his theory of discipline was firm kindness, and his success is attested
by all who were fortunate enough to be his students. Previous to Dr.
Bauscher’s time there had been no regular graduating class ; he systema-
tized the course, graded the school, and from that time regular graduating
exercises were annually held.

In 1881, Frederick E. Partington was elected principal. In 1884, the
Academy was burned to the ground, and Principal Partington resigned
to accept the principalship of Staten Island Academy. Previous, how-
ever, to leaving New Paltz, Mr. Partington was very active and successful
in the effort to raise funds for rebuilding the Academy. Others specially
active in the work were Rev. Ame Vennema and Jacob LeFevre. To
raise $25,000 was no small task, but the townspeople responded nobly,
as did many people from other towns. Major Thomas Cornell of King-
ston may be mentioned as one of the most liberal contributors. Mr. and
Mrs. Lambert Jenkins paid $1,250 in all toward the work. Members
of the alumni came promptly forward at this critical time, not only with
their own money, but with that given by their friends. The task of col-
lection being completed, it remained to construct a new building. This

THE SCHOOLS OF THE COUNTY.

529

work finished, the Academy Trustees met on January 22d, 1885, to take
account of stock and to discuss the future. The new principal, Henry A.
Balcom, was much interested in Normal schools. The matter was dis-
cussed at some length with the result that Dr. Balcom and Ralph LeFevre
were appointed a committee to determine upon the practicability of turn-
ing over the Academy to the State for Normal school purposes, and to
secure needed legislation to that end if deemed practicable. The com-
mittee promptly commenced the work.

All the normal schools of the State at that time, with the exception of
the Albany Normal, were in the western and northern counties, and there
was a demand for a training school in the southeastern section. Petitions
favorable to the New Paltz plan were secured from Poughkeepsie,
Goshen, Kingston, Montgomery, Yonkers, Saugerties, Newburgh and
other towns. The leading men of the county were enlisted, and finally
near the close of the legislative session in 1885, the bill was passed and
signed by Governor David B. Hill, who showed a friendly feeling.
The Committee, the Board of Academy Trustees and others who had
assisted in the work, had encountered various obstacles and overcome
much opposition, but they had achieved a splendid victory not only for
New Paltz, but for Ulster County and for education in general. In this
connection special mention should be made of the services rendered by
Messrs. Jacob LeFevre and Josiah J. Hasbrouck, while outside of New
Paltz very great assistance was rendered by Thomas E. Benedict of Ellen-
ville, Dewitt Peltz of Albany, and Gen. George H. Sharpe and Judge
Alton B. Parker of Kingston.

The first Local Board of the New Paltz Normal school consisted of
Alton B. Parker, George H. Sharpe and Jacob D. Wurts of Kingston,
Albert K. Smiley of Lake Mohonk, Jacob LeFevre, Josiah J. Hasbrouck,
Solomon Deyo, Charles W. Deyo and Lambert Jenkins of New Paltz.

Dr. Eugene Bouton, with six assistants, constituted the first faculty.
At that time there were less than 100 students. Principal Bouton was
succeeded by Dr. Frank S. Capen,who served from 1889 to 1900. He was
a man of great energy and the number of students rapidly increased.

The present principal is Myron T. Scudder, who, with nineteen assist-
ants, is conducting one of the most progressive and successful Normal
schools in the country. At the World’s Fair in St. Louis in 1904
the gold medal was awarded to New Paltz for the best educational

530

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

exhibit from the Normal schools of New York State. This school
has taken an advanced position in regard to manual training, domes-
tic science and such subjects as tend to correlate the public schools
with real life. The system of student participation in 'government,
known as the School City, is of special importance to all who are inter-
ested in the development of civic reforms and social service. The New
Paltz Normal School attracts many visitors from other schools and col-
leges throughout the country, as well as from Alaska, Cuba and Mexico,
and has received delegations from Teachers’ College, New York Uni-
versity, and many city school systems. Also from such bodies as the
Federation of Women’s Clubs of New York City and the Federated Clubs
of Massachusetts, besides a number of other associations devoted to the
study of educational problems. After carefully looking over the normal
schools in the East, the United States Government during the temporary
occupation of Cuba, sent sixty Cuban young ladies to New Paltz for
normal training. These young ladies are now reported as being among
the most efficient teachers in the schools of Cuba. Nearly i,ooo teachers
have been trained in this school to take positions in the schools of the
State, and besides the New Paltz Normal furnishes instruction to all New
Paltz pupils of whatever grade.

During the past winter the building was destroyed by fire. However,
through prompt action by the Commissioner of Education and the legis-
lature, the insurance money was reappropriated for building purposes,
together with a sufficient amount additional to construct a larger building
on a larger and commanding site. In placing the matter in its proper
light before the legislature, in order to secure the necessary appropriation
to rebuild, a great amount of labor was performed by Assemblymen
Cunningham and Fowler and Senator Cordts of this county; likewise by
Hon. Frank J. LeFevre, Judge G. D. B. Hasbrouck and Bruyn Hasbrouck.
The future of the Normal school now seems assured.

SAUGERTIES.

We have shown that common schools for Ulster County were intro-
duced and fostered by the Dutch. However, the early settlement of the
county was somewhat unique. The Dutch settled in Esopus, the French
in New Paltz, and the Palatines in Saugerties. Thus the efforts of
the Dutch in educational matters were supplemented on either side.

THE SCHOOLS OF THE COUNTY.

531

History tells us that the Palatine colony, founded in 1710, built a school
house within a few months. Another school house was built at Katsbaan.
The history of these schools was not unlike that of the other schools of
the county. They met the same difficulties, overcame the same obstacles,
and gave the young people of those early days the rudiments of an educa-
tion and a thorough training for the hard pioneer life they were to live.
The discipline of those schools was of such a character as to restrain
any tendency to convert into license their newly found liberty. Instead
of being helped over every difficulty, the pupils were obliged to work out
their own salvation, thus fitting them for the stern realities of their primi-
tive life.

The schools of Saugerties passed through the various changes incident
to an increasing population and changing laws. The school commissioners,
elected under the law of 1812, divided the town into twelve districts, which
number has been increased to twenty-one. Ludwig Roesle (now Russell)
was a noted teacher before the Revolution, In 1768 he prepared a manu-
script arithmetic which is preserved to this day. Efforts were made from
time to time to secure the advantages of higher education. The Sauger-
ties Academy flourished for a number of years, but it finally declined and
the school was closed. In 1866 the Saugerties Institute was founded ; this
institution was for a number of years a strong conservator of educational
interests in this town.

On January 13th, 1893, Saugerties Union Free School district No. 10
was formed from what were then known as districts Nos. 10, 15 and 21.
A provisional charter for the establishment of an academic department
was granted by the Regents of the University on the 5th day of June,
1894, and on June 28, 1897, ^ permanent High School charter was granted.
Since that date, the Board of Education has maintained a thoroughly
equipped and up-to-date school system. The graduates of the Sauger-
ties High School rank welt in higher institutions of learning, and the
teachers employed have been thoroughly trained and competent. The
present members of the Board of Education are R. B. Overbaugh, Presi-
dent; George Seamon, Samuel M. Gray, William L. Darbee, John T.
Washburn, Jr., Edward J. Lewis, John A. Snyder, William Ziegler and
James T. Maxwell. They have under their supervision four school build-
ings, an enrollment of 510 students, and they employ fifteen teachers and a
superintendent. The citizens of Saugerties have a commendable degree

532

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

of interest in their schools, and every effort is made to provide the children
of the town with the best educational advantages. The district has just
voted to erect a new school building at a cost of $55,000.

ELLEN VI LLE.

The first authentic record of the Ellenville schools is of a meeting held
at the house of Nathan Hoornbeek in district No. 13, of Wawarsing, on
November nth, 1828. Elisha Sheldon was chairman of this meeting. The
village was but a small hamlet with buildings scattered here and there
amid the corn and wheat fields, and it is quite probable that district
No. 13 served for the schooling of the children of a large territory.
Annual school meetings, according to the minutes, seem to have been
held either at the tavern of Nathan Hoornbeek, or in Patchens’ Hall until
the year 1833, when, for the first time, it is recorded that a meeting was
held in the school house. This school house, called by way of distinction
for some years afterward, the “Brick School House,” is still standing, and
it forms a part of a tenement on the corner of Main and Warren streets,
opposite the old pottery site.

On July 8th, 1837, a special meeting was held. The records of this
meeting show a broadening of school sentiment. After the routine busi-
ness had been dispatched, the following resolution was passed:

Resolved, That the school house be enlarged by building an additional
story of brick on the top of the present house. That $200 be raised by
assessment on the district for above purpose. That if there be an over-
plus, it shall be used for fencing the lot and for such other improvements
as the trustees deem proper.

During the year 1839, district No. 15 was probably created, and the
records show that district No. 13 divided and turned over certain public
moneys to the newly formed district.

On April 28th, 1845, it is recorded that by order of the town Superin-
tendent, districts Nos. 13 and 15 were united, to be known thereafter as
district No. 13. In the same minutes the “White School House” is men-
tioned for the first time to distinguish it from the “Brick School House”
of the old district. The “White School House,” located on Canal Street,
was enlarged and transformed into a dwelling now occupied by F. W.
Campbell. At the annual meeting, Dec. 31st, 1845, some of the progressive
men of the village began to agitate the question of a new building which

THE SCHOOLS OF THE COUNTY.

533

should be sufficiently commodious to accommodate all the school children.
This movement was bitterly opposed by certain taxpayers, but on Novem-
ber 13th, 1846, it was voted to commence the building. This building was
termed by the opposition the ‘'Mammoth School House,” though accord-
ing to the report twenty years after it was stated that its utmost seating
capacity was only 200. The Trustees who were instrumental in bringing
about this change were George A. Dudley, Alvah B. Preston and Ditmus
Hardenburgh. These men deserve special mention as pioneers in the
educational advancement of the town. Through their efforts, and through
the efforts of Willet S. Northrop and John H. Van Wagenen, the first
principals of the new school, Ellenville took first rank in the county in
educational matters. These two principals were disciples and followers
of that distinguished educator, David P. Page, the first principal of the
Albany State Normal School.

At that time the public school curriculum was simple and unpretending,
requiring only spelling, reading, writing, arithmetic, geography and
grammar. The school apparatus was limited to a Globe, Outline Maps,
Blocks to illustrate the extraction of square and cube roots, a Normal
Chart and a rickety Orrery. Scant as were these appliances, they were
obtained chiefly by filching from the annual library appropriation.
The teaching was characterized by patient, painstaking effort ; expo-
sition and demonstration were rigidly required. The ability of a pupil
to explain his lesson so that it could be understood by others was held to be
first proof that he himself had mastered it; hence blackboard work was
regarded as highty essential.

Spelling was either oral or written; the reading classes were trained
in modulation and enunciation; during those days the teachers believed
that pupils learned by imitation, and some of the most difficult passages
were read over and over again by the teachers. Pupils were required
to watch for error on the part of their classmates, thus insuring better
attention and increased interest in the lesson. Geography was studied
and recited in the usual manner, except that more map drawing was re-
quired ; for this purpose, the large blackboards were utilized. Students
in arithmetic were required to place problems upon the blackboard, after
which they were expected to pass again to the board, and with the aid
of a pointer explain their work step by step. Each student so reciting
was subject to criticism by the teacher and by any member of the class.

534

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

Mental arithmetic was all that the title implies ; the schools usually had
but one copy of the text book, and this was in possession of the teacher.
The mental arithmetic of those days developed concentration, attention,
memory and reason ; it also developed ease and correctness of expression.
At first Colburn’s text book was used ; this was afterwards supplanted by
a book, the author of which was John F. Stoddard of the town of Wa-
warsing. Singing and elementary algebra were taught, and composition
and declamation were weekly exercises. Not infrequently the teacher
gave short talks on various subjects of interest; lessons in astronomy
were illustrated by the orrery, which was wont to move in a mysterious
way. Altogether, the school maintained a high standard for those days.

The year 1853 was memorable in the school history of Ellenville. Sev-
eral of the progressive and leading citizens desiring better school privi-
leges than could be furnished by the common school, organized a stock
company and built an academy. Some years after, this same company
built a residence for the teachers, and boarding accommodations for out
of town pupils. The first principal of this academy was John H. Van
Wagenen, who had demonstrated his ability and fitness by his successful
management of the district school. After several years of service, Mr.
Van Wagenen resigned, and was succeeded by S. A. Law Post. Mr. Post,
a graduate of Yale, proved to be not only a competent teacher, but a
successful business manager as well. After some years, Mr. Post pur-
chased the property, improved and embellished it, reorganized the school
and caused it, by act of legislature, to be placed under the visitations of
the Regents. These changes resulted in giving it a wider reputation,
increased patronage, and a standing among the high schools and semina-
ries of the State. In 1866, the district school was made a union free school
and a Board of Education was elected to have charge of common school
matters. At this time, the '‘Mammoth School House,” although greatly
relieved by the Academy and private schools, was taxed to its utmost
capacity. In 1867, ^ larger school house was built, in the eastern part of
the town, and seven years later a still larger one was erected on the cor-
ner of Main and Warren streets. Nine years after, the Board of Educa-
tion, desirous of establishing an academic department, purchased the old
academy property, which had been closed for some years on account of
Mr. Post’s death. This building has been refitted and enlarged from time
to time as requirements have been increased. The revival and restoration

THE SCHOOLS OF THE COUNTY.

535

of hig”!! school privileges, and the incorporation of a union free school
have proved of great advantage in many ways.

The school is under the supervision of the Regents, is well equipped
with books and apparatus, and its curriculum enables students to prepare
for entrance to the Normal schools and colleges. A teachers’ training
class is also carried on with great success, and a large number of non-
resident students are enrolled each year. The largely increased attend-
ance and the corresponding increase in the teaching force led to the elec-
tion of a superintendent in 1883. Mr. Ira H. Lawton was the first super-
intendent, followed in succession by Rev. F. W. Woodward, Dr. John W.
Chandler, and the present vigorous and efficient incumbent, Mr. E. C.
Hocmer. Besides the working libraries in the several schools, aggregat-
ing 1,200 volumes, there is also in the district a well equipped Free Public
Library of over 5,000 volumes.

The schools of Ellenville were never in a more prosperous condition
than at present; 638 resident pupils and 77 non-resident pupils were re-
ported in 1906. The annual expenditure for school purposes is over
$12,000. The teaching force consists of eighteen teachers and a superin-
tendent.

536

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

CHAPTER XLVI.

TPIE SHIPPING OF TWAALFSKILL.

By Henry H. Pitts.

T'^PIE old North or Hudson River Sloops were of a peculiar model and
construction, and were specially planned and adapted to navigate
smooth inland waters, with broad full bows shaped somewhat like
the head of a huge fish, and great breadth of beam for their length. With
masts 90 to no feet long, a main boom 75 to 85 feet, a top mast 60 to 85
feet and a jib, they could spread from 3,000 to 5,000 yards of canvas, and
sail closer to the wind than vessels of any other rig or model.

Some of them were fleet and could outsail the smartest yachts of their
time ; they were known among all sailors and boatmen, and their peculiar
type and model was not to be seen elsewhere. Most of them carried a
crew of 5 men, Captain, ist, 2nd and 3rd hand, and a first-class cook. All
of them set good tables and were furnished with the best food, for all
were hearty eaters. The Captain did no work. On account of their great
spread of canvas and lofty masts, the sloops presented a beautiful appear-
ance when under full sail. On a bright day in summer with a free wind
the Hudson would often be dotted with them for miles.

The good sloop Dollie was owned and sailed by Captain Gurnee of South
Rondout. She was the pet of all the Hudson River boatmen, and was
believed by them to be almost human, and to know her way on the river as
well as the crew, and to be able to find her way in the Rondout Creek
in the darkest nights alone. Captain Gurnee related to the writer this
story. He was on his way home from Albany to Rondout,- but just off the
mouth of the Saugerties Creek the wind and tide gave out, and he was
compelled to anchor. There being no wind he left all sails standing, and
told the crew they could turn in and he would keep anchor watch. After
a while the Captain becam.e sleepy and lay down on the locker in the
cabin, and fell asleep. How long he slept he does not know, but he was
awakened by the noise of the sheet block dragging across the deck on
the traveler. Thinking the wind was coming up he dozed off again, when

THE SHIPPING OF TWAALFSKILL.

537

he was again awakened by the same noise. Thinking it was now time
to call the crew and get up anchor, he went on deck and to his surprise
found the Dolly fast at her regular dock at Rondout. Captain Gurnee ex-
plains this as follows: When the tide rose she tripped the anchor and

the Dolly was free. The sails being all set and the wind just right she
stood off for the east shore. When near the east shore the wind again
changed, the boom went over and she stood off for the Rondout Creek,
which she made, having just headway enough to carry her to her regular
dock in the creek.

The old sloop Hoaxer, built in the year 1832, and owned by Cox and
Company at Eddyville, had the name of always being unlucky. She had
many owners and captains who always had bad luck. Her last owners
were the Booth Brothers, whO' being practical men and very skeptical,
bought her for a song, and placed her in command of Captain Theodore
Bush, a young and skilled boatmen. Her first cargo was a load of Wilbur
ground lime in barrels. Before she left the dock Mr. Rand of the firm of
Smith and Rand, powder manufacturers at Rifton, came to the office of
Booth Brothers and begged them to put on 100 kegs of powder for a
special hurried order. Captain Bush gave his consent, and the powder
was put on on Saturday afternoon in July, 1862. That night the tide was
so low that the vessel grounded and could not leave her dock ; the crew
all went ashore, leaving Captain Bush in charge. The Captain was
awakened late Sunday morning by smoke coming through the bulkhead in
the cabin. A few springs, and he was on deck and gave the alarm. The
hatches were taken off, and the Booths were the first to jump in the hold
and pass out the heated kegs of powder to the men on the dock. Twice the
owners had to be taken out of the hold in a suffocating condition caused
by the heat and fumes from the slacking lime. Finally, all the powder
was taken out but one keg, which being* fast between the swelling lime
barrels, could not be moved. A hole was broken in this keg and water
poured in until thoroughly saturated. The hatches were put on and the
fire smothered.

During the removal of the powder a panic existed among the residents
of Wilbur, most of whom fled to the adjoining hills for safety.

The old sloop Martin Wynkoop had many owners and captains, and the
name of always being unlucky. She was believed by all boatmen to be
bewitched. Every one who owned her had bad luck while she was in their

538

• THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

possession, and every Captain who sailed her was always doing damage.
It is said that at the time she was launched a young man was killed and the
vessel was cursed by his mother. Captain Edwin Young once sailed her.
He was a first-class boatman, a man of good common sense who did not
believe in ghosts, witches or anything supernatural; a man of great
courage. Captain Young told the writer that this old hulk defied all
natural laws, that he had known her to drift and drag her anchor and foul
another vessel against both wind and tide. He said he never had a day’s
luck while sailing her, and gave up his command in disgust. The different
crews of this old sloop would tell her that she was at anchor in the river ;
they would go ashore at night to enjoy themselves, and on returning
would find her lighted from stem to stern, and merry music and witches
dancing to ghost time, and that all would vanish in darkness as soon as
their boat touched the vessel’s side.

One of the largest vessels built on the Rondout was the two-masted
schooner Henry H. Pitts, built at New Salem at the ship yard of Frank
Haber by Henry H. Pitts. She was 165 feet long, 30 feet 6 inches beam,
drew 9 feet, loaded, 4 feet light, and carried 500 gross tons. She was
launched during a violent thunder storm in the summer of 1872. Old
'boatmen said that the thunder storm was a bad omen for the vessel.
She was fitted out for the deep sea and coast trade, and was chartered for
her first voyage to the lower coast of Mexico to bring home a cargo of
mahogany logs. On her first outward trip from New York she en-
countered a heavy northeast gale, which lasted ninety hours, and was so
badly damaged that she was compelled to put into the port of Kingston,
Jamaica, in distress. On her return from Mexico loaded with mahogany,
she encountered a fierce gale in the Straits of Florida, the Captain lost
his reckoning and ran on the Bahama rocks. The Captain proceeded on
his voyage to New York, but when off Cape Hatteras encountered a ter-
rible northwest hurricane, and after tr}dng to round the Cape was com-
pelled to put off before the gale and did not stop until he made Tybe
light at the mouth of the Savannah River, in distress. After a stormy
passage up the coast she arrived safe in New York. She was com-
manded by Captain S. B. Fletcher of Islesboro, Me., who never had a
day’s luck while on her, and the owner sold her to the firm of C. W.
Alcot and Company of New York, who made money with her. She is
still running and has had good luck ever since.

THE SHIPPING OF TWAALFSKILL.

539

The Addison, the Henry Clay and the Greene County Tanner were all
famous vessels in their day, and all hailed from Wilbur. The advent of
the fast steamer Alida and the propeller Nicholas Elmendorf, in
the summer of 1852-53, started a business boom in Wilbur. A company
was formed composed of Nicholas Elmendorf, Philip V. D. Lockwood
and William Hasten of Kingston, who purchased the Alida and placed
her on the route as a day boat from Wilbur to New York, returning the
same day. The Alida made her first trip in the spring of 1854, and
left the Rondout Creek with the largest number of passengers she ever
carried. She rolled so that a panic prevailed, women fainted and men
were unnerved, so> that when she landed at Rondout hundreds left her
and could not be induced to return. After leaving the creek and getting
under good headway in the river she stopped rolling and made the trip
to New York and return quickly and safely. The owners then purchased
the propeller Nicholas Elmendorf, and placed her on the route as a freight
boat. After running about one year the company failed, all its members
lost every dollar the}^ had. The Alida could make the trip from New
York to Wilbur in less than five hours, and her time has never been
beaten.

She was commanded by Captain William Hasten. Her first pilot was
Captain Judson Horey, and her second Pilot Hortimer Van Etten, all of
Kingston.

The propeller Elmendorf was commanded by Captain DuBois Lowe of
Eddyville.

The following vessels commanded as stated, also sailed from Twaalfs-
kill :

Sloop Gideon Lee. Captain James Smith.

Schooner Everett, built at South Rondout by Captain William Gurnee.

Sloop Beckey Ford, South Rondout. Captain David Houghtaling.

Sloop Robert North, Mingo Hollow. Owned and sailed by Captain Adam Beam.

Sloop Dollie, of South Rondout. Owned and sailed by Captain William Gurnee.

Sloop Victor. Captain Steve Schoonmaker.

Sloop Henry Clay, 185 years old, had many captains and owners, is still running
in the Creek.

Sloop Milan. Sailed by Captain Alfred Hyde.

Sloop John Leach. Sailed by Captain John Myers, Hyde.

Sloop Hannah Ann. Owned and sailed by Captain Abe Hyde.

Sloop Ambassador, of South Rondout. Owned and sailed by Captain Dick Ham-
ilton.

Old Sloop Canfield. Owned and sailed by Captain Thomas Requa, of Eddyville,
one of the veterans of the Hudson.

540

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

Sloop Martin Wynkoop. Sailed by Captain James Smith, Edwin Young and
many others.

Old Sloop Kemmannah, A fast sailor. Sailed and owned by Captain Edwin

Young.

Schooner Kate and Mary, built at South Rondout. Built, sailed and owned by
Captain James Cogswell.

Captain William Gurnee, big and fearless, built and owned the Sloop Sarah
Gurnee, and the I. & W.’ Gurnee. Captain Isaac Houghtaling, the strong man, car-
ried anchor to blacksmiths for repair. Owned and sailed many of the old Sloops.
Sloop Dutchess. Captain Cottrell.

Sloop Venus. Owned and sailed by Captain Thomas Martain,

Sloop Josephine. Owned and sailed by Captain Thomas Martain.

Sloop Congress. Big Sloop. Captain Thomas Martain,

Sloop James Lawrence. Captain Sam Van Aken.

Sloop Bell. Owned and sailed by Captain William DeLanoye, of South Rondout.
Sloop John Beveridge, a fast sailor. Captain William Hopkins.

Schooner John H. Gould. Captain William Myers,

Sloop Hoaxer. Sailed by Captain Tom Cherrytree Cox, Always unlucky. Cap-
tain Theodore Bush. Carried lime and powder.

Sloop John Jay. Sunk, and raised. Owned and sailed by Captain John Forsyth.
Sloop Lafayette. Owned by H. H. Pitts. Sailed by Captain Philip Kelly, Cap-
tain John Forsyth. Rebuilt.

Sloop Ohio. Captain Dennis Donovan,

Sloop Canal. Captain Timothy Donovan.

Sloop Congress. Owned by Edward Kearney. Sailed by Captain Mat Kav-
anaugh.

Sloop Nellie Wales. Sailed by Captain Mat Cavanagh.

Sloop Holbrook. Rebuilt. Captain Joseph Lynch.

Sloop George W. Hurst. Sailed by Captain William Quinn.

Sloop Hadden. Captain John Quinn, Captain Thomas Bouls.

Sloop Milan. Captain James Henry, Captain Hyde.

Sloop Hellen Brown, of Rondout. Owned and sailed by Captain John Quinn.
Sloop Will Mail. Owned and sailed by Captain Charles Felton, a Frenchman.
Sloop Quackenbush. Owned and sailed by Captain Richard Degraff, who was
killed aboard her.

S. & W. B. FITCH LINE.

Sloop Addison. Captains Louis Shultis, Peter Ball, Edwin Young and Jas. Smith.
Schooner Green County Tanner. Captain Alfred Hyde.

Schooner Bride. Sailed by Captain William Hyde.

Sloop William H. Bridger. Sailed by Captain Robert Henry.

Sloop Thomas Colyer, Sailed by Captain Philip Shultus.

Big Sloop Canal, Captain Mauric Lahey and Captain Peter Ball,

Sloop Iowa. Sailed by Captain William Hyde.

Sloop Asa Biglow. Sailed by Captain Peter Bell.

Sloop Jacob Lorilard. Owned and sailed by Captain Ben Simmons.

Big Sloop Othelo, of Wilbur. Captain Aeris Johnson.

Sloop Thomas Adams. Captain Lou Van Aken, of New Salem.

Sloop Missouri. Captain Alfred Hyde.

BLUESTONE.

541

CHAPTER XLVIL
BLUESTONE.

By Charles E. Foote.

This species of sandstone has for many years formed a foremost
industry in Ulster, as well as in other sections of the State. As
briefly mentioned in an early chapter of this work, this stratum
belongs to the Upper Devonian period. Beginning at a point near Albany,
the boundary of the productive region extends southward, from five to
twenty miles west of the Hudson, to the vicinity of Hurley, when it turns
to the southwest along Rondout Creek. The northern boundary of the
formation stretches westward across the State on about an east and west
line, beginning about fifteen or twenty miles south of the Mohawk and
ending near the shore of Lake Erie, the district thus covering the principal
portion of the southern and southeastern part of the State. The most
prolific regions are in Ulster, the southeastern portion of Greene County,
and a strip along the Delaware River.

As nearly as can be ascertained, the first quarry of bluestone was opened
by Silas Brainerd, near Saugerties, in 1832. While others are said to have
preceded him, authentic data thereof is lacking. In any event the quar-
ries were not worked to an extent which would make them commercially
historical.

Bluestone is a peculiarly hard, fine-grained quality of sandstone. The
name was originally applied to the blue colored stone quarried in Ulster
County, but its commercial application of recent years has been extended
to cover most of the flagstone produced in the State, some of which is
green and some of a reddish color. The beds are generally horizontal,
or dip at gentle angles, so that the working is comparatively easy.

This district, which comprises Greene, Ulster, Delaware, Sullivan and
Broome Counties, according to the division made by the State Geologist,
is composed of a large number of quarries, most of which are small
and short lived. To offset this, however, is the further fact that there
are thousands of them known, but still under cover, and presumably other

542

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

thousands which have not yet been looked for. It may be safely said that
there is enough bluestone in Ulster County alone to keep the quarrying
portion of its population busy for centuries to come.

Most of the stone quarried in Ulster is subjected to mill-treatment,
known commercially as quarry-dressed at the mills in the vicinity of the
quarries. The balance, probably twenty-five per cent of the whole, is
treated at the mills along the Hudson River.

Commercially the Ulster bluestone is divided into three classes as
follows :

No. I. Flagstone. No. 2. Edge. No. 3. Rock. No. i includes
the stone used for sidewalks, and requires little dressing. Stone an inch
and a half thick or over, with a smooth surface and edges at right angles,
fulfil the requirements. Its density is so great as to absorb little mois-
ture, and this renders it almost impervious to wear, while its character
is such that it never becomes smooth and slippery with the moisture as
does clay slate.

No. 2 includes such stone as curb, window and door-sills, lintels and
other house trimmings. This stone requires dressing; curb requires
“axing” on the face and edge. All this class of stone requires one or
more perfect edges for market.

No. 3 includes the stone sold in the rough to dealers for mill-treatment.
It ranges from four inches to as many feet or more in thickness, and is
sawed or planed in the mills for platforms, steps, and building-stone.
The first two classes are often treated in the mills when finished work is
required.

The beds of stone in the Ulster quarries are divided naturally by vertical
joints at right angles, one system running north and south and the other
east and west. The east and west joints are known to the quarrymen
as the “heads,” or “headers,” while those running north and south are
called “side seams.” These seams are five to seventy-five feet apart, and
the distance determines the maximum size of the stone that can be taken
from them. The layers into which a ledge is divided by horizontal seams
are known as “lifts.” These are split apart by means of thin wedges, driven
to make a practically uniform pressure along the entire front, so as to
raise the layer back to the next joint. If the joint be too far back, so that
the stone would be too large for handling, a place of cleavage, or breaking
point, is made by drilling holes in a line across it, thus dividing it into

BLUESTONE.

543

sections. It sometimes occurs that the stone is brittle, or that for some
other reason the stone refuses to split, and breaks into fragments at the in-
troduction of the wedges ; this destroys the value of the quarry, so far as
that particular lift is concerned. More loss may be incurred by following
it up in search for better results, or the very next lift may be a perfect one.
Judgment and experience seem to have no place in the determination of
“when to stop’' under these circumstances. To proceed may mean to add
to the loss already incurred by “stripping,” (uncovering the top) or it may
mean to develop a fine and profitable quarry which will repay many fold
the time and labor spent upon it. This feature constitutes the “miner’s
gamble,” and no unlucky gold miner ever saw a fine prospect “pinch out,”
with feelings of more acute regret, than have Ulster County bluestone
quarrymen watched the continuation of the breaking and crumbling of
the stone as the wedges tried to cleave it from its bed.

In addition to the open seams which separate the lifts, and which are
often filled with a thin stratum of shale called “pencil,” there are often
numerous closed seams, sometimes very close together, which show where
the stone may be split if care is exercised. These are called “reeds,” and
frequently indicate that very thin layers may be produced if desired.
These “reeds” do not detract from the durability or excellence of the
stone, but rather add to them, by giving it a condition of comparative
elasticity, which better enables it to resist the extremes of weather.

When a quarry is first opened the lifts are usually thin, but they become
thicker as each successive tier is removed. Sometimes the thicker lifts
are at the bottom, at other times at the top. Quarries which run prin-
cipally to flagstone may be operated by hand or horse-power. The
“stripping,” by which is meant the removal of the soil covering, clay or
hardpan, and sometimes rocks, from the top of the bluestone ledge, is usu-
ally done in winter, when the ground is frozen, as it may then be blasted
and removed more readily. Most of the quarrying is done during eight
or nine months of the year, few quarries are operated in the very cold
weather of winter.

After the stone is taken from its bed, it is turned over to the stone-
cutter, who prepares it for the market. Flagstone is cut to commercial
sizes and irregularities of the surface are chiseled down. Curb or other
“edge” stones must be broken or split to the proper dimensions, “axed”
on the face, and the top edge pitched to the proper angle. Rock and

544

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

platform stone require no dressing at the quarry, the finer dressing being
done at the docks. At many of these docks, stone mills are in operation.
The mill-treatment consists of sawing the large blocks, planing and rub-
bing the house trimmings, steps, platforms, etc., and boring sewer heads.

A planer consists of a stationary base and upper frame, with an oscil-
lating carriage on which the stone is firmly fastened. In the upper frame
the plane-bits are firmly fixed, which take off the irregularities of the
surface of the stone as it passes under them on the carriage. “Rubbing’'
is done by a circular cast-iron plate, which is made to revolve swiftly
against the surface of the stone. Sand and water are fed to facilitate
this work.

Most of the quarries in Ulster are worked by from two to five men;
sometimes in partnership, sometimes as employer and helpers. The
quarryman rarely owns the land on which the quarry is located, but
usually leases it at a rental of five per cent, of the value of the product.
Many of the larger quarries are owned by the wholesale dealers, who lease
to the quarrymen, and maintain mills for preparing the product for
market. One of the difficulties under which the quarryman labors, is the
transportation of the stone to the dock of the dealer to whom he sells.
In some cases the cost of this is equal to half the value of the load hauled ;
in other, and more favorable locations, it runs as low as eight or ten per
cent. Settlements are made weekly or nionthly as may be agreed upon.

Flagstone is sold by the square foot. Curbing and crosswalk by the
linear foot. Rock, the thick large stone, is sold by a sort of inverted
lumber measure, per inch, by the square foot. For instance, a stone lo by
10, containing one hundred square feet of surface, would, if ten inches
thick, at two and a half cents an inch, bring twenty-five dollars. The
same stone, sixteen inches thick, would bring forty dollars.

PART II.

BIOGRAPHICAL

BIOGRAPHICAL.

545

BIOGRAPHICAL.

HENRY ABBEY was born at Rondoiit, now the Eastern District of Kingston,
New York, on July ii, 1842. His father was Stephen Abbey. His mother’s maiden
name was Caroline Vail. Stephen Abbey’s grandmother was Lucy Knox, a lineal
descendant of John Knox, the famous Scotch reformer. Caroline Vail was a
daughter of Elias Vail, of Masonville, New York, and a descendant of one of two
brothers Vail that came over in the time of the Mayflower and is said to have mar-
ried a daughter of Massasoit.

Henry Abbey was sent to school when he was six years old and, when he was
eighteen, had been a student, at Kingston Academy, at the Heading Institute in
Greene County, at the Delaware Institute in Delaware County and at the Hudson
River Institute in Columbia County. Owing to his father’s financial reverses in
the panic of 1857, he was obliged later to give up his studies preparatory for col-
lege, but was tutored for some time by John N. Pomeroy, the writer on inter-
national law. In 1861, Henry Abbey became assistant editor of the Rondout
Courier.

In 1862 he published his first book of poems. It was probably the first book
ever published by a resident and native of Ulster County. It was entitled May
Dreams and by permission dedicated to William Cullen Bryant.

Soon after the publication of May Dreams, Mr. Abbey went to New York and
was a clerk in the office of a monthly magazine. He made the acquaintance of
Henry Clapp^ Jr., literary editor of the New York Leader. Mr. Clapp encouraged
Mr. Abbey, invited him to write for his paper, and introduced him to George Ar-
nold, Fitz Hugh Ludlow, Ada Clare and other contributors to the Leader. In
1863, Mr. Abbey went to Orange, New Jersey, where he edited the Orange Spec-
tator. In 1864, he returned to Rondout and, for about two years and a half, was
teller in the Bank of Rondout. He had the impulse and found time in which to
write more verses, and in 1866, published his second book, Ralph and Other Poems.

In December, 1865, he married Mary Louise DuBois, of Kingston. She died
November 2, 1889. In 1867, he left the bank and went into the flour and grain
business with his father and, later, with his brother, under the style of Stephen
Abbey and Sons, and continued to be a merchant in that business until 1900. For
the greater part of this time and until the end of it he was a member of the New
York Produce Exchange.

In 1869, he published his third volume, Stories in Verse. It bore the imprint of
A. D. F. Randolph & Co., New York, and was dedicated to Richard Grant White.
Soon after its publication Mr. Abbey contributed poems to The Galaxy, to Apple-

546

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

tons' Journal, to Chambers's Journal, to Bret Harte’s Overland Monthly, to Har-
per's Monthly and Weekly, to Edward Everett Hale’s Old and New magazine and
to other periodicals.

Mr. Abbey’s fourth book was made up of these contributions and was entitled
Ballads of Good Deeds. D. Appleton & Company were the publishers and it was
dedicated to George William Curtis. With a few additions, and under the same
title, this volume was re-published in England in 1876 by Henry S. King & Com-
pany, London. The sixth book was entitled Poems by Henry Abbey and was
published by D. Appleton & Company in 1879. Mr. Abbey’s seventh book was
issued in 1883 by the same house and was entitled The City of Success and Other
Poems.

Mr. Abbey has been a Freemason since 1871. In 1874 he was Senior Warden of
Kingston Lodge No. 10.

Since that time he has also been a member of the Fair Street Reformed Church,
and in 1902 and 1903 was a delegate to General Synod. From 1883 to 1885 he was
a member of the Kingston Board of Health. In 1888 he ran for Alderman on the
Republican ticket and was defeated.

In this year, 1888, he published, in pamphlet form, his poem Gettysburg, which
he read, on the battlefield, on October 4th, 1888, at the dedication of the monu-
ment to the Eightieth New York Regiment of Volunteers. The veterans said that
the poem was true in every detail and that it brought back to them vividly the
scenes of the battle.

Mr. Abbey was a director, vice-president and, in 1895, president of the State of
New York National Bank of Kingston. Since 1884 he has been a member of
the Authors’ Club. He is a life member of the New York Shakespeare Society.
For several years he was a member of the National Sculpture Society.

In 1885, Mr. Abbey published a complete edition of his poems, and a third edition
enlarged, in 1895. In 1901, he published Phaethon and Three Other Stories in
Verse. The book was dedicated to his sister, Mrs. James G. Cutler, of Rochester,
New York. In 1904, the fourth edition of The Poems of Henry Abbey, complete
to date, and containing in all about 370 pages, was published by D. Appleton & Com-
pany, New York.

Since 1900 Mr. Abbey has not engaged in any business.

CHARLES J. ACKERT. — The late Hon. Charles J. Ackert, son of Samuel
Ackert, was born at Hyde Park, Dutchess County, N. Y., May i, 1830, and died
at New Paltz, June i, 1900. He learned the printer’s trade at the office of the
Poughkeepsie Eagle and was engaged in newspaper offices in Dutchess and West-
chester Counties, as foreman or editor and proprietor, until June, i860, when he
became a resident of Ulster County and established the New Paltz Times, a live
Democratic paper, vigorous in discussion, but fair, readable, clean, a power in the
community.

Mr. Ackert was a Civil War veteran of honorable record, from 1862 to 1864 in
Company A, 156th Regiment, New York Volunteer Infantry. A Private, Sergeant,
Second Lieutenant, promoted for personal bravery. On his return he resumed

BIOGRAPHICAL.

547

charge of his paper, which during his absence had been published by his wife. He
was appointed Postmaster of New Paltz by President Cleveland, and served as
Town Clerk for fifteen years. President of the Village for two years, Supervisor
from 1896 to 1899 and Member of Assembly in 1899 and 1900. Mr. Ackert, with
the exception of one year, was commander of Elting Post, G. A. R., and for six
years, previous to his death, was President of his Regiment Association. Mr.
Ackert was a charter member of Walkill Lodge, K. of P., No. 162, of New Paltz,
and a member of Veteran Firemen’s Association of Poughkeepsie. He was a man
full of energy, courage, honor and charity, and his friends were legion.

In 1851 he was united in marriage to Miss Eliza Varick Silvernail, of Pough-
keepsie. Mrs. Ackert has succeeded her husband in the publication of the Times,
and under her management it has maintained its high place in weekly journalism.
Their only child, Isabella, is now the wife of Mr. George E. Johnston, druggist.
President of the Lone Brick Company of New Paltz, President of the Electric
Light Company and Town Clerk.

JOHN B. ALLIGER was born at Alligerville, town of Rochester, Ulster Coimty,
May 23rd, 1847. Elijah Alliger, the grandfather of John B., was a native of
Rochester township. He married Ann Decker, of Shawangunk township. They
lived in the town of Rochester for a time after their marriage and then moved
to what later became the village of Alligerville. He erected the first building and
founded the village. He conducted a general store there, dealt in millstones,
operated extensive quarries and also constructed, on contract, portions of the Dela-
ware and Hudson canal in 1825. In the war of 1812 he served as a commissioned
officer. He was a leader in church and temperance work as well as financial en-
terprises and was one of the pillars of the Dutch Reformed Church of Alligerville.
He died in 1856, aged sixty-nine years, and his wife died in 1852 at the age of sixty-
two years. Seven children were born to them, of whom Cornelius D. was next
youngest. He was born January 5th, 1825, at Alligerville, and remained there
until 1864, when he moved to Stone Ridge, in the town of Marbletown, where he
remained three years. He then removed to Rondout, where he died in 1897. He
married Maria Hasbrouck, daughter of Philip and Sarah Westbrook Hasbrouck,
on June loth, 1846, and they had four sons. Mrs. Alliger died in September, 1884,
at the age of sixty-four years.

John B. Alliger, the eldest of the family of Cornelius D. and Maria Alliger,
both of whom were of French Huguenot families, who had intermarried with the
Dutch, spent his early life on the farm and in attendance at the district school of
Kyserike. In 1863 he entered Fort Edward Institute, where he remained one and
one-half terms, and during the winter of 1864-5, taught the Cottekill District
School in the town of Rosendale. May 30th, 1865, he came to Rondout, and for
two years was employed as clerk in a hardware store. In February, 1867, he
entered the National Bank of Rondout as teller, and remained with that institu-
tion twenty-five years; the last seven years of that period he served the bank as
cashier. In January, 1902, he was made a director and vice-president of this bank
and is now serving as such.

548

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

When the Ulster County Savings Institution was reorganized in 1892, Mr.
Alliger was chosen one of its trustees, and later in the same year was appointed
its treasurer, which office he still retains in 1907. During his administration the
assets have been doubled,

Mr. Alliger has been identified with the Rondout Presbyterian church since being
a resident of Kingston, of which he was trustee for twenty years, during twelve
of which he served as its treasurer. He has also been identified with the Young
Men’s Christian Association since its organization, of which he has been recording
secretary and one of its directors. He served as trustee of Ulster Academy from
1885 to 1894.

He was made a Mason in 1869, in Rondout Lodge No. 343, F. & A. M., of which
he was Master in 1885-6-7. He was for three years Assistant Grand Lecturer of
the Grand Lodge of New York for the Third Judicial District, was District Deputy
Grand Master of the Tenth Masonic District during the Grand Lodge year of
1893-4 and was also Representative of the Grand Lodge of Kansas, He was ex-
alted in Mount Horeb Chapter No. 75, R. A. M,, of which he is Past High Priest,
was knighted in Rondout Commandery No. 52, K. T., of which he is Past Eminent
Commander. He was the fourth member to be knighted after the commandery
was organized in 1871. He is a thirty-second degree Mason and a member of the
Scottish Rite bodies of New York City, Northern Jurisdiction, and is a member of
Mecca Temple of the Mystic Shrine. Mr, Alliger is a Republican; he has aspired
to no political office and has held none except upon the organization of the police
force of Kingston in 1891, he was made one of the first commissioners and served
six years. On October 27th, 1869, he was joined in marriage with Mary A. Smith,
daughter of John B, and Elizabeth Hudler Smith. They have only one child,
Alice N., now the wife of Henry C. Connelly, Jr.

CAPTAIN ABSALOM ELTINGE ANDERSON was born at Saugerties, N. Y.,
January ii, 1856. At the age of four years his parents moved to Esopus, where
he obtained his preliminary education, later attending the Military Institute at
Neshanic and Eastman’s Business College at Poughkeepsie. He then began his
career on the Hudson River in connection with the steamer Mary Powell, of which
he has been Captain and part owner for the past eighteen years.

In 1881 Captain Anderson was married to Fannie V. Elmore, of Brooklyn, N. Y.
Captain Anderson is one of the most popular commanders on the Hudson and
eminently fitted for the position he occupies. His father. Captain Absalom L.
Anderson, was born at Croton, N, Y., in 1812 and died in 1895. He came from
an honored family who traced their ancestry back to 1530. Among the notable
vessels he owned and commanded were the Robert L. Stephan, The Thomas
Powell and the Mary Powell. The Anderson family have for many years been
prominently identified with business and social affairs of Ulster County.

DUBOIS G. ATKINS, Attorney of Kingston, was born in the town of Platte-
kill, Ulster County, September 5, 1866. He obtained his education first in the dis-
trict schools of Clintondale, and later entered Claverack Academy, subsequently

BIOGRAPHICAL.

549

pursuing his studies at the Wesleyan University at Middletown, Conn. After
leaving the University Mr. Atkins became principal of the Perrinesville, New Jer-
sey, High School, remaining one year. He then served as principal of the school
at Eddyville, Ulster County, where he remained two years. In 1890 he accepted
an offer from the Vermont Episcopal Institute at Burlington, Vermont, where he
held the chair of Professor of Mathematics and Military Tactics for one year.
In the fall of 1891 he was elected principal of School No. ii of the City of Kingston,
and shortly thereafter resigned and accepted the position of Deputy County Treas-
urer, which office he held for three years.

Mr. Atkins began reading law in the office of Bernard & Fiero in Kingston, in
1888. He later continued his law studies with Schoonmaker & Linson; at this
time he was teaching school and read law evenings and Saturdays, and was ad-
mitted to the Bar December 5, 1893. February 15, 1899, he was admitted to the
United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, and also to
the Circuit Court. He has also taken a great interest in the public schools of the
city. He has been a member of the Board of Education for fourteen years. In
1902, he was instrumental in having the schools consolidated; this caused a hard
and bitter fight. Before consolidation there were five Boards of Education in
the City of Kingston. Consolidation made one, and upon the organization of the
new Board of Education Mr. Atkins was elected President, and has been con-
tinuously elected for five years.

December 30th, 1890, he was joined in marriage with Wilhelmina, daughter of
Calvin Winne, and they have one daughter, Helen.

MILTON O. AUCHMOODY was born at Esopus, Ulster County, December 3,
1872. He obtained his education at the Bontecoe District School of Ulster, and
later attended the Academy at Kingston. He began the study of law in 1894 in
the office of Charles Irwin, later continuing his studies with Hon. D. B. Deyo. He
was admitted to the Bar in 1898 and engaged in practice with Chandler A. Oaks.
This partnership was later dissolved and since January i, 1906, Mr. Auchmoody
has practiced alone. Politically he is a Democrat.

He is a son of Samuel L. and Catharine J. (Schoonmaker) Auchmoody, and
his grand-parents, David Auchmoody and Jane LeFevre, on his father’s side, were
descendants of Gemes Acmoidec, who settled in New Paltz previous to 1730 and
was the first Scot to settle there. Joshua Schoonmaker and Salina Vredenburg on
his mother’s side are among the early settlers in the County.

JOHN J. BAISDEN, a well-known ship and boat builder of Fly Mountain and
Sleightsburg, was born at Chatham, England, August 24, 1831. He came with his
parents to America, and his early school days were spent in Rondout and Kingston.
He learned the trade of boat building with Bridger & Bishop, at Rondout, re-
maining with them until 1849, when he went to New York City. He worked for
Williams at Green Point until 1853, when he returned to Rondout an 1 framed
the barge Joseph P. Davis.

In 1854 Mr. Baisden moved to Mongaup, Sullivan County, N. Y., and built boats

550

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

for the Delaware & Hudson Canal Company, being in business there until 1857,
when he returned to Rondout. In the fall of 1857 he moved to Hawley, Penn.,
and was again engaged in building boats for the Delaware & Hudson Canal Com-
pany, also for the Pennsylvania Coal Company, remaining there until 1882. It
was in that year that he moved to New Salem (Fly Mountain P. O.), and bought
his present dock, where he has since been building and repairing boats.

Mr. Baisden was married January i, 1852, in Kingston, to Miss Mary
E. Schoonmaker, who was born in Kingston, September 10, 1833. (Died
January 8, 1903.) She was a daughter of Stephen Schoonmaker. The fol-
lowing children were born to them: Mary Felicia, born January 31, 1853 (died
January 17, 1861); Tamar A., born February 20, 1855 (died December 30, i860);
Hannah Josephine, born February 18, 1857; Sarah Ida, born May 2, 1859; Martha
A., born September 26, 1861 ; John Stephen, born March 13, 1864 ; Charles Ethan,
born November 9, 1866 (died December 14, 1866) ; Lewis Hale, born March 14,
1868; William Nelson, born March 6, 1^2 (died August i, 1872) ; Walter Monroe,
born June 16, 1876. He was married in Ocotber 26, 1904, to E. Katherine Ellison,
daughter of the late Alfred L. Ellison, of Esopus, Ulster County.

Mr. Baisden is president of the Board of Trustees, Sunday School superinten-
dent and class-leader of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Eddyville.

LAWRENCE F. BANNON, president of the Plumbing Board of the city of
Kingston and prominent among Ulster County’s successful business men, was born
in Kingston, August 2, 1870. When eight years of age his parents removed to a
farm on the Lucas turnpike, four miles from the city, and in the public schools of
that neighborhood he received his education. At the age of thirteen he went to
New York City and learned the trade of plumbing, after which he embarked on
a tour of the United States, Canada, Mexico, Australia, Japan and China.

In 1896 Mr. Bannon returned to Ulster County and opened a plumbing estab-
lishment in Rosendale, which he still maintains. In 1900 he established a place
of business in Kingston and enjoys an extensive and profitable trade.

Mr. Bannon is Past Chancellor Commander of Golden City Lodge No. 63, of
San Francisco, Cal., Past Ruler of the Knights of the Golden Eagles, Golden
Gate Castle No. 5, San Francisco, and a member of Kingston Lodge No. 550,
Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He is treasurer of the New York State
Master Plumbers’ Association. He is a son of Lawrence and Sarah (McDonald)
Bannon, of Kingston, N. Y.

PETER BARMAN, of Kingston, N. Y., was born in Germany in 1846. He at-
tended the public schools of his native country and in 1858 came with his father
to America. They located in Rondout, where his father Jacob died four years
later, his mother having died in Germany some years previously. Peter Barman,
soon after his arrival in Rondout, secured employment with his uncle, Mr. Schwal-
bach, who conducted a brewery in Kingston. He remained in his employ, proved
a faithful and efficient helper and eventually succeeded to the ownership of the

BIOGRAPHICAL.

551

property. The Barman brewery is now one of the important industries of the
county.

In 1876 he married Miss Susan Bender, of Germany, and eight children have
been born to them, six of whom are living; two of his sons are employed in a
clerical capacity in his office.

ANDREW N. BARNES, one of the leading business men of Kingston, was born
in that city in 1847. He obtained his education at private schools and the Kingston
Academy, after which he entered the employ of Merritt & Crosby as a clerk, with
whom he remained thirteen years. At the end of that period he, with others, pur-
chased the business at Rondout and continued it for several years. In 1876 he was
appointed postmaster of Rondout and held that office during the following ten
years. In 1886 he bought a half interest in the Hudson River Furniture Co., at
661 Broadway, Kingston, and it has since been conducted under the firm name
of Gregory & Barnes.

Mr. Barnes has served the city as Republican Alderman of the Second Ward and
is a member of the old Washington Engine Co., No. 3. His father, George Barnes,
a Baptist minister, was born in Colchester, England, and came to New York City
in 1832, where he remained two years, during which time he married Charlotte
Twitchet, of London, Eng. In 1834 he removed to Kingston. Andrew N. Barnes
married Miss Sarah K. Willis, of Kingston, and C. Everett Barnes is the only son.

LOUIS BEERES, cashier of the First National Bank of Rondout, was born in
Illinois in 1871. He became associated with the above institution in 1888, served
seven years as teller and in 1906 was promoted to his present office. Socially he is
a member of the Masonic fraternity and the Knights of Pythias. He married Miss
Keokee Davis, of Ulster County, and they have two children. Mr. Beeres is one
of Kingston’s highly respected citizens and is ably fulfilling the duties of the re-
sponsible office he occupies.

GEORGE N. BELL, civil engineer of Kingston, was born in Brooklyn, N. Y.,
in 1859. He was educated at the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute, St. John’s School,
Manlius, N. Y., Kansas State University and the School of Mines, Columbia Col-
lege. His first employment was with the U. S. Government at Newport, R. I.,
where he remained six years, engaging in private practice and as inspecting en-
gineer of the Newport Sanitary Protection Association, R. I., where he remained
six years. In 1887 he removed to Philadelphia and opened an engineering office.
In 1890 he went South in the employment of boom town promoters to lay out town
sites, which lasted some two years, and in 1892 again entered the employ of the
government as Assistant Engineer in fortification work. In 1899 Mr. Bell came to
Kingston, and in 1900 was appointed City Engineer for a term of two years, during
which time his plans for large sewerage systems of the 2nd and 9th wards were
adopted. He is now engaged in private practice, making a specialty of landscape
engineering, sewerage and water systems. Mr. Bell’s family consists of his wife,
who was Miss Elizabeth Eicher, and four children.

552

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

LEWIS F. BENNETT, Supervisor of the town of Denning, was born in the
city of Kingston, in 1853. At the age of three years he removed with his parents
to Dewittville, and received his education at the public schools of that place. He
has been engaged in the manufacture of bed springs and mattresses for the past
fifteen years, in which he enjoys an extensive trade. He also conducts a farm of
three hundred and fifty acres.

Mr. Bennett is identified with the Masonic Order, the Odd Fellows, and the
Maccabees. He has always taken an active interest in politics and with the ex-
ception of two terms has served as Supervisor, continuously since 1895. He mar-
ried Miss Martha A. Dixon and they have four children, Bertha E., Lewis J.,
Reuben J., and Henry D.

REUBEN BERNARD, Attorney of Kingston, was born in the town of Platte-
kill, Ulster County, February 24, 1830. He obtained his education at New Paltz
Academy and Armenia Seminary. In 1849 he took up the study of law with the
well-known firm of Forsyth & Hasbrouck at Kingston. In 1851 he entered the law
school then located at Ballston Spa, and in 1852, after examination at Albany, was
admitted to the bar, and has since been admitted to the bar of the United States.
He began practice in Kingston, where he has since remained.

Mr. Bernard has been officially connected with the various banks in Kingston
and vicinity. In 1852 he was chosen attorney for the Huguenot Bank, then being
organized at New Paltz. In 1858 he became attorney for the Kingston National
Bank, in 1868 a director and in 1877 was elected its president, which office he still
holds. He was also the attorney for the Ulster County Savings Institution from
1855 to 1870, and has served the New Paltz Savings Bank in that capacity since
1877. He was president of the Kingston & Rondout R. R. four years and for a
number of years was a director in the Wallkill Valley R. R., and has acted as
attorney for each of these corporations.

He was the first president of the Kingston Board of Trade and held that office
many years. He has been a member of the Fair Street Reformed Church since
1861 and has at various times held offices in the Church. He was superintendent
of the Sunday School for many years and has served as president of the Ulster
County Sunday School Association.

On June 3, 1856, Mr. Bernard was married to Jane Catherine, only daughter of
Dr. Garrett DuBois Crispell, who was for over half a century a practicing phy-
sician of Kingston. They have three daughters, Mary Lawrence, Amelia, wife of
Henry S. Crispell, of Rondout, and Sarah Crispell.

JAMES A, BETTS, Justice of the Supreme Court, is a native of Fulton County,
New York. His early education was begun in the district school at Mills Corners
and later continued in the graded schools of Broadalbin, Fulton Count3^ He fin-
ished his studies at the Albany State Normal School, from which he graduated June
18, 1875. In September, 1875, he came to Kingston and became the principal of
Public School No. ii. He occupied that position two years, during which time
he began the study of law in the office of Schoonmaker and Linson, and in No-

BIOGRAPHICAL.

553

vembcr, 1880, was admitted to the bar. For several years he acted as managing
clerk for the above firm of lawyers. He was the first secretary of the State Civil
Service Commission, which was organized in 1883. In 1890 he was elected clerk
of the Board of Supervisors and re-elected the year following. In 1891 he was
chairman of the Democratic County Committee, and in 1892 was unanimously
nominated to the office of Surrogate of Ulster County, being elected for a term
of six years. In 1898 he was elected Justice of the Supreme Court of this district
for a term of fourteen years, and is administering the duties of that honorable
office in an able and dignified manner.

Judge Betts is vice-president and one of the managers of the Kingston City
Hospital, and a member of the Senate House Association. He served two years
as president of the Kingston Board of Education, and has been a member of the
Board of Trade since its organization. He is president of the Kingston Savings
Bank.

October 16, 1884, he married Frances M., a daughter of the late William D.
Hill, of Kingston. She died June 15, 1905. He has one child, Fanny Hill Betts,
born January 27, 1899.

ASA BISHOP, son of Jacob and Catherine (Eckert) Bishop, was born in the
town of Olive, Ulster County, in 1842. At the age of nineteen years he enlisted
in Company D of the Twentieth N. Y. S. M., and served three years in the Civil
War, being severely wounded at the battle of Gettysburg. At the close of the
war he returned home and engaged in quarrying for several years. In 1885 he
purchased his present store, which was established in i860 and the oldest in the
town, and has since been engaged in a general mercantile business. He has served
five years as town clerk and sixteen years as Justice of the Peace. He is a mem-
ber of the G. A. R., the Knights of Pythias and the I. O. O. F. In 1866 he mar-
ried Miss Josephine B. Bardin. They have one son, Legrande D., born December
9, 1881, a son Lewis, born in 1867, died before reaching his majority.

His father, Jacob Bishop, was born at Olive in 1795 and at the age of four years
became blind, remaining so through life. He conducted a farm and operated a
grist-mill. His father, Asa Bishop, came to Olive about 1790 from Nine Partners,
Dutchess County, and became one of the leading men of his day in Ulster. Bishop
Falls, in the town of Olive, was named for the family. Jacob Bishop married
Catherine Eckert, and their twelve children grew to maturity. Of their children,
Asa, the subject of this sketch, and Ephraim M. still reside at Olive.

Ephraim M. was born at Olive Bridge, January 22, 1832, married Eliza Ann
Wood and has eight children, six of whom are now living, namely: Ernest, Bertha,
Schuyler C, Mabel, Charles and Bessie W. He conducted a woolen mill ten
years and a general store thirty years ; was postmaster twenty years and town
clerk two terms.

DANIEL BLACK, JR., son of Daniel and Ellen (Abernethy) Black, was born
at Whiteport, Ulster County, in 1845. After finishing his studies at the schools
of Wilbur, he aided his father for a time, in the cultivation of his farm on the

554

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

Rosendale road, known as the Abernethy plantation. He then engaged in boating
for a number of years, between Le Fevre Falls and Philadelphia. He was iden-
tified with the cement industry in this county from 1882 to 1900, both in connection
with the Rock Lock and Rosendale Cement Co., and the Lawrence Cement Co.

Mr. Black has served as trustee of the New Paltz Savings Bank since 1890. He
is a charter member of C. S. Clay Lodge No. 586, I. O. O. F., and a member of the
Reformed Church. In 1884 he was united in marriage to Miss Eliza E. Hoffman,
daughter of Henry and Sarah A. (DuBois) Hoffman, of Rosendale.

LEWIS D. BLACK, of the firm of Black Bros., Eddyville, who conduct the
most extensive mercantile business on the Rondout Creek, v/as born at the Aber-
nethy plantation on the Rosendale Road, Ulster County, in 1848. He is the second
son of Daniel and Ellen (Abernethy) Black, who had a family of ten children.

He obtained his education at the public schools, and in 1872 opened the present
store at Eddyville, which grew to generous proportions during the years the D.
& H. Canal was in operation.

In 1882 Mr. Black married Miss Theresa Wurster, of Fly Mountain, who has
borne him the following children: Theresa, Peter A., Nellie, Daniel (deceased),
Lillian, Walter, Major, Abel, Mary, Ira, Jennie, Alton B. Parker, and B. Odell.
Mr. Black is identified with No. 10 Lodge, F. & A. M., Mount Horeb Chapter, and
Rondout Commandery. He is also a member of the I. O. O. F.

PETER C. BLACK, merchant of Eddyville, and one of Ulster County’s promi-
nent citizens, was born at the well-known homestead of the Black family on the
Rosendale road. After finishing his education at the Kingston Academy and East-
man’s Business College, Poughkeepsie, N. Y., he engaged in the mercantile busi-
ness with his brother, Lewis D., under the firm name of Black Brothers. This
firm has met with unusual success and enjoys an extensive trade throughout that
section of the county.

Socially Mr. Black is identified with the Knights of Pythias and the Indepen-
dent Order of Odd Fellows. Although active in promoting the welfare and up-
holding the principles of the Democratic party, Mr. Black has repeatedly declined
to become a candidate for public office. He has been a delegate to several of the
Democratic State Conventions, and was in attendance at the memorable National
Democratic Convention at St. Louis in 1904. He- is a director in tne State of New
York National Bank and has been a trustee of the Ulster County Savings Institu-
tion, of Kingston, for many years.

Mr. Black is a son of Daniel and Ellen (Abernethy) Black, who had a family
of four daughters and six sons, each of whom has achieved success in their chosen
vocations.

WILLIAM HENRY DILL BLAKE was born in the town of Montgomery,
Orange County, N. Y., January 17, 1843. After finishing his studies at Montgomery
Academy, he enlisted December 31, 1863, in Company C, 56th N. Y. Veteran Vol-
unteer Infantry. From a private he was promoted to Corporal, September 10, 1864,

BIOGRAPHICAL.

555

and to Regimental Commissary Sergeant, November 22, 1864. He was commis-
sioned Second Lieutenant, September 19, 1865, with rank from September ist, and
honorably discharged from the service November loth of the same year.

In 1867 Mr. Blake entered the employ of Homer Ramsdell & Co., with whom
he remained seven years, when he accepted a position as agent for the Newburgh
& Albany Steamboat Line, also conducting a flour and feed store at Newburgh.
In 1881 Mr. Blake removed to New Paltz, and purchased the farm of 250 acres
where he now resides. In 1875 he was united in marriage to Miss Matilda R.
Booth, daughter of Alfred Booth, of Campbell Hall, N. Y. They have three chil-
dren living, Alfred Booth, William Culbert, and Matilda. Mrs, Blake died Novem-
ber 19, 1904. Mr. Blake is Commander of Elting Post No. 212, G, A. R., and is
one of the two historians who prepared and published the History of the 56th
Regiment, New York Veteran Volunteer Infantry, in the Civil War from 1861 to
1865.

John Blake, Jr., grandfather of our subject, was prominently identified with pub-
lic affairs in Orange County during the greater portion of his life. He was nomi-
nated for Sheriff by Dewitt Clinton in 1801, and from 1805 to 1809 was a member
of Congress from the Orange County district. William Blake, his son, was born
February 22, 1794, in the court house at Kingston, at the time John Blake, Jr,, was
administering the office of Sheriff of Ulster County, during the absence of the in-
cumbent, Benjamin Sears.

HOWARD C. BOGARDUS, of Malden, New York, was born in that village,
February 27, 1848. When sixteen years of age he secured a position as bookkeeper
for the Bigelow Blue Stone Company, of Malden, and eventually became its cashier
and secretary. In February, 1892, that company was reorganized into the Ulster
Blue Stone Company, with B. Taylor Harris as its President, and in 1901 it was
sold to the Hudson River Blue Stone Company, the present owners of the busi-
ness. Mr. Bogardus is cashier and general manager of the Malden branch.

He was for a number of years assistant postmaster under his father, Hobart
Bogardus, who came to Malden at an early day and became one of its foremost
citizens. Mr. Bogardus is a direct descendant of Aneke Janus Bogardus, who
married Everadus Bogardus, the first minister from Holland to America.

HEWITT BOICE, an honored and esteemed citizen of Kingston, and promi-
nent among the notable self-made men of Ulster County, comes of a pioneer family.
He is a grandson of Peter Boice and also of Samuel Davis, both well-known and
substantial natives and life-long residents of Olive Township. Hewitt Boice was
born at Boiceville, Ulster County, in 1846. His father, William V. N. Boice, was
also a native of Olive Township. He was a successful farmer and also dealt in
lumber and blue stone. He died in 1898, leaving to his family the record of an
honorable name, a useful life, and an unblemished reputation. Our subject re-
ceived his education in the public schools and early in life became interested in
the blue stone industry. In connection with his father, and his brother, Peter, he
carried on a tannery, lumber and bluestone business at Samsonville, Ulster County,

556

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

under the firm name of William V. N. Boice and Sons, which continued until
1875, in which year he commenced the stone business in a comparatively limited
way at Brodheads Bridge, Two years later he moved into the city of Kingston
and purchased property on East Strand, Rondout, five hundred feet frontage, where
he established a business which rapidly grew to become the largest of the kind in
the country, doing a business of from $300,000 to $500,000 annually. In addition
to this plant, Mr. Boice also owned five barges and a 350-ton schooner, all em-
ployed in his industry. He also owned a stone yard and mills at Higginsville and
quarries at different points along the Ulster and Delaware Railroad. To this im-
mense business he gave his personal attention, until his interests were purchased
by the Hudson River Blue Stone Co. in 1901, at a very large figure.

In 1866 Hewitt Boice was married to Miss Caroline Sinclair, and to them was
born one daughter, Virginia, now the wife of Rev. F. B. Seeley, and one son, who
died in infancy. In 1899 the mother died. In 1901 Mr. Boice was united in mar-
riage to Miss Kathryn DuBois Deyo, of Kingston. He lives a retired life at his
handsome home on Fair Street, Kingston, enjoying the competency accumulated
throughout a successful business career. In politics Mr. Boice is a Republican. He is
a man of decided views upon public questions, but has never aspired to public office.
A man of strong personality and possessed of great natural shrewdness and busi-
ness ability, he is recognized as being one of the most substantial and successful
men in Ulster County.

JESSE B. BOICE, manufacturer, at Olive Bridge, was born at West Shokan,
Ulster County, N. Y., in 1865. Mr. Boice obtained his education at the schools
of his native place, and purchased from his uncle, John I. Boice, the old Bishop
grist-mill at Bishop’s Falls, which he still operates, and in addition conducts a saw-
mill across the creek.

Mr. Boice is a member of No. 10 Lodge, F. and A. M. and the I. O. O. F. No.
491. He is an elder in the Reformed Church and has served six years as Clerk
of the town of Olive.

He was united in marriage to Miss Alice Lockwood, of Ulster County. Isaiah
Boice, father of our subject, was engaged in farming in the town of Olive, and
was numbered among Ulster County’s respected citizens. He was a son of John
S. and Gidea (Smith) Boice.

ZADOC P. BOICE. — Sheriff Zadoc P. Boice, of Kingston, was born at Boice-
ville, in the town of Olive, July 29, 1858. He is a son of Lemuel Boice, who was
born at Shokan, Olive Township, May 5, 1819. Lemuel Boice was engaged in
farming, which occupation he followed but a few years, when he became interested
in the tanning business. He built a tannery at Boiceville, where he was also en-
gaged in lumbering. He was the leading citizen in the town, was very energetic
and controlled one of the largest tanneries in the county. The village of Boice-
ville was named for him. He remained there until about 1865, when he returned
to Shokan and took up farming and lumbering. About the year 1876 he took the
contract for building the roadbed and erecting the arches and bridges on the rail-

BIOGRAPHICAL.

557

road between Arkville and Delhi. On July 14, 1842, he married Mary Ann Brinck,
of the town of Olive, and eight children were born to them, of whom Zadoc P. is
next youngest. The mother died in June, 1874, and March 30, 1876, Mr. Boice
took for his second wife Mary C. Hill. Mr. Boice served one term as Supervisor,
in the year 1858.

Zadoc P. Boice became a partner of D. W. Ennist in the grocery business, in
1878, which was continued until October i, 1885.

He then purchased his father’s property, both the business interests and real
estate, in West Shokan, which he has since conducted.

His marriage with Delia Elmendorf, of Olive, took place October 6, 1880, and
two children have been born to them, Lena and Delta. Mr. Boice was for three
years a member of the County Board of Supervisors. He is a member of Kingston
Lodge No. 10, F. & A. M., and Mountain Gate Lodge No. 299, Knights of Pythias,
of West Shokan. He is also a director in the State of New York National Bank.
In 1906 Mr. Boice received the Republican nomination for the office of Sheriff of
Ulster County, and was elected by a handsome majority.

WILLIAM BOOTH, of Ellenville, N. Y., a native of Sheffield, England, was
born in August, 1842. He served a rigid apprenticeship in the cutlery line in his
native town and came to this country in 1864, working at his trade in Bronxville
and Naugatuck, Conn. In 1871 he came to Ellenville, and has been connected
with the Divine Knife Works, as Superintendent of the plant, for over thirty-five
years.

Mr. Booth served as President of the Village of Ellenville for three terms, and
has been Trustee of the village for eleven years. He is connected with the Epis-
copal Church, Masonic Brotherhood and the K. of P. He is a very practical and
energetic manager of one of the most important industries of the county, as well
as being one of the most highly regarded and influential citizens of his adopted
town.

JOHN GAIL BORDEN, the youngest son of the late Gail Borden, who was
famous as an inventor and public benefactor, was born in Galveston, Texas, Janu-
ary 4, 1844. Coming North when but a lad of thirteen, he entered one of the
Brooklyn public schools, and later attended the Winchester Academy in Winches-
ter Center, Conn., where he remained for two years. From the time when he left
the Academy until he entered a business college, young Borden assisted his father
in establishing the condensed milk business, then in its infancy.

The call for volunteers in ’61 interrupted the business college course, and Mr.
Borden, then but nineteen years of age, enlisted at Poughkeepsie, N. Y., under
Colonel (the late General) John Henry Ketcham, in the 150th N. Y. Volunteers,
serving in this regiment for two years and a half, and attaining the rank of second
lieutenant during that time. Just before his regiment started for the front, the
young patriot presented himself for baptism and membership in the Armenia, N. Y.,
Baptist Church, and in the years following gave every evidence of a consistent
Christian life.

558

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

His service in the “150th” was terminated by a serious illness, caused by the
severe strain and exposure of army life, and Mr. Borden was compelled to return
to his home for rest and recuperation. When sufficiently recovered, he was trans-
ferred to the 47th N. Y. Volunteers, and remained with that regiment until the close
of the war. Returning to his home in Brewsters, N. Y., Mr. Borden became ac-
tively identified with the Borden Condensed Milk Co., and upon the death of his
father, in 1874, succeeded him as its president.

During his connection with the company, he made many valuable improvements
in the methods of manufacturing condensed milk, and otherwise firmly established
the reputation of the Borden Condensed Milk Co.

Removing in 1881 from Brewsters to Wallkill, N. Y,, he purchased the property
known as the “John P. Andrews farm,” comprising about two hundred acres, and
by acquiring adjacent lands from time to time, the “Borden Home Farm” was
made to cover an area of some fifteen hundred acres. Most, if not all, of this
property was a part of an original grant of land deeded by Queen Anne, in 1709,
to “her true and loving subjects.” Here Mr. Borden built a large condensery for
the Borden Condensed Milk Co., continuing the management of the business until
1884, when failing health compelled him to retire from an active business life.
From that time until his death, Mr. Borden gave his whole attention to the im-
proving and beautifying of his “Home Farm,” trying, as he expressed it, to “make
two blades of grass where but one grew before.” With all the improvements made
upon the farm, he did not indulge in what is known as “fancy farming,” but aimed
rather to make his improvements on a practical basis, furnishing object lessons
which any energetic farmer might easily put into practice.

In politics, Mr. Borden was a staunch Republican, firmly believing in every
citizen taking an active part in the politics of his town, and conscientiously per-
forming his duty at the primaries and the polls.

Mr. Borden’s patriotism increased with years, and he was one, if not the first, of
the pioneers who labored to impress upon the minds of the children a strong love
for country and “the Stars and Stripes,” and each Decoration Day, he presented
to every child in the public schools in his vicinity, a small American flag; con-
tinuing this practice until his death. Among Mr. Borden’s characteristics, none
were stronger than his devotion to home and country. Courtesy and gentleness
were also marked characteristics with him, and his hat was removed as quickly for
a little girl as for a lady. He was a true disciple of the “gospel of labor,” and one
of his unwritten mottoes was, that “what was worth doing at all was worth doing
well,” which rule was followed out in all his undertakings. He worked incessantly,
and was old before his time. Mr. Borden died in October, 1891, at Ormond, Flor-
ida, where, as well as in the North, he left an enviable and lasting record of prac-
tical Christian living. He lived but forty-seven years — a short life, but one so
filled with work for God and humanity, that its value cannot be estimated by the
number of years alone.

WARREN L. BOYER, Superintendent of the New York Car and Truck Co., of
Kingston, was born in Allentown, Pa., in 1878. He is a master mechanic by occu-

BIOGRAPHICAL.

559

pation and was for seven years connected with the Peckham Manufacturing Co.,
which formerly occupied the premises. He is numbered among Kingston’s pro-
gressive young business men. Socially he is affiliated with the Allentown Lodge
of Elks No. 130, and the Modern Workmen of America.

JOHN BOYLE was born in Sullivan County, March 29, 1865. After obtaining
his education at the public schools of his native place, he engaged in the boating
business on river and sound. In 1889 Mr. Boyle was united in marriage to Miss
Mary Cornell, daughter of Joseph W. Cornell, whose name figures prominently
in the development of Ulster County.

Mr. Boyle is now proprietor of the Cornell Inn, a popular summer hostelry over-
looking the Rondout Creek at Fly Mountain, offering among its many attractions
good boating, fishing and bathing. Eugene Boyle, father of our subject, died at
the old homestead in Sullivan County, July 23, 1905. He was married to Catha-
rine Nimo, daughter of Thomas Nimo, whose ancestors were among the early
settlers of the State.

W. A. BRIGGS, a prominent merchant and manufacturer of Claryville, Ulster
County, was born at Grahamsville, Sullivan County, in 1843. He obtained his edu-
cation at the schools of his native place, and when Civil War was declared enlisted
in Company C, 143rd N. Y. V., serving three years. In 1866 he established a general
mercantile business, and subsequently engaged in the manufacture of lumber, shin-
gles, furniture hoops and piano bars, giving employment at present to over forty
men.

Possessed of keen sagacity and enterprise, Mr. Briggs is one of the most suc-
cessful men in the community his real estate holdings in Ulster County covering
over one thousand acres. Mr. Briggs married Miss Abigail Dixon, and their family
consists of John, now traveling salesman for the Winchester Arms Co., W. A., Jr.,
and O, D. (who have succeeded their father in the management of the store under
the firm name of W. A. Briggs’ Sons), Harrison, Ella, Inda and Martha.

HENRY R. BRIGHAM, senior member of the firm of Brigham Bros., brick
manufacturers, was born in Kingston, N. Y., in 1858, and is of English ancestry.
Graduating from Kingston Academy in 1878, he then attended Colgate Academy
one year, following which he entered the employ of the Wabash R. R. system at
Logansport, Ind., as accountant. In 1880 he resigned to become general sales
agent of the Hudson River Cement Company, where he remained ten years, being
also secretary of the company. About this time the firm of Brigham Bros. (Henry
R. and William H.) was formed, opening general stores at Creek Locks and East
Kingston, N. Y.

In 1892 they began the manufacture of brick at East Kingston, the business being
still carried on by them. Mr. Brigham also conducts a cement brick commission
house in New York City. They have recently built another brick manufacturing
plant, and installed a new system of manufacturing brick, drying it by a steam
process, thus enabling them to make brick at all seasons. Starting with a capacity

S6o

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

of 6,000,000 brick, their business has expanded to an annual output of 40,000,000
brick, giving employment to four hundred men.

Mr. Brigham is a trustee of the Ulster County Savings Institution, a director of
the State of New York National Bank, and a member of the Board of Education.
He is a member of the First Baptist Church of Kingston, and president of its Board
of Trustees.

In October, 1882, he married Sarah Sparling, daughter of Derrick W. Sparling, of
Kingston, and one son, Harold S., was born to them in 1883. Harold married
Charlotte Rouse, of Kingston, N. Y., in 1906.

Elisha M. Brigham, father of our subject, was born at Willington, Conn., May i,
1822. He came to Ulster County in 1837, and was thereafter associated with many
of its important and financial enterprises. He established a store in Kingston in
1849, which he conducted some nine or ten years. He organized the Rondout and
Kingston Cement Company in 1858, and managed that company twenty-five years.
In 1873 he was appointed receiver of the N. Y., K. & S., now the Ulster & Delaware
R. R. He was elected County Treasurer in 1851, and held that office until 1857.
He was president of the Board of Education for many years and was a member
of that body from 1872 until his death. He served as Alms Commissioner twenty-
two years and during a portion of that time was president of the Board. He was
president of the village of Kingston at the time its charter as a city was obtained.
He was presidential elector in 1872. During his lifetime he was deeply interested
in church work, was a member of the First Baptist Church of Kingston and presi-
dent of its Board of Trustees.

JOEL BRINK, son of Andrew and Sarah M. (Osterhoudt) Brink, was born
at Lake Katrine, Ulster County, in 1868. He has been engaged in farming and
the mercantile business at his native place for many years and has served as Super-
visor for the town of Ulster since 1904, winning a memorable contest over his
Democratic opponent in the election of 1903.

Socially Mr. Brink is identified with No. 10 Lodge, F. and A. M. He was united
in marriage to Miss Anna E. Kieffer, lof Ulster County, and one son, Herbert, has
been born to them.

THEODORE BRINK, postmaster and merchant, Lake Katrine, N. Y., a de-
scendant of an old Ulster County family of Revolutionary ascendants, was born
January 12, i860. His father, Andrew Brink, who died in 1904, established the
mercantile business at Lake Katrine, and conducted it up to the time of his demise.
Theodore was educated in the schools of Kingston, and has been associated with his
father in business since its inception. Prior to engaging in the mercantile busi-
ness, Andrew Brink was engaged in farming, which he carried on from his youth
on their own farm, which has been in the family for over one hundred years, now
owned by Theodore Brink. The family home was erected in 1821 ; it contains
many handsome pieces of Colonial furniture, and is situated near the shores of
Lake Katrine. The business embraces a general line of merchandise, including
coal, flour and feed, farm machinery, fertilizers, etc. Mr. Brink is a member of

BIOGRAPHICAL. 561

the Holland Society, the Kingston Club and the Dutch Reformed Church. He
lives in the old homestead with his sisters and is unmarried.

Mr. Brink’s ancestors came from Wageningen, in Gelderland, Holland, in 1658.
A son, named Cornelius, was born on the passage over and from him our subject
is descended. Hubert Brink, a descendant of Cornelius, settled in Kingston over
two hundred years ago. He secured a tract of land at the place now called Mount
Marion, which has never entirely passed out of the possession of the family. The
old stone house, the first building erected on the land, is still standing and is oc-
cupied by a member of the Brink family.

ABRAHAM D. BRODHEAD, son of John C. and Cornelia W. (Deyo) Brod-
head, was born in Kingston, New York, in 1863. In 1890 he was united in mar-
riage to Miss Gertrude M. Deyo, daughter of Matthew Deyo. The ancestry of
the Brodhead and Deyo families occupies a prominent place in the early settle-
ment of 'Ulster County.

THE W. G. BROWNE MEG. CO. was established at 82 Prince Street in 1898,
and in 1902, when the company was incorporated, they moved to their present
location. The industry passed into the hands of the present proprietors in 1905,
the firm now being composed of Benj. F. Bird, President and General Manager;
E. H. Bogart, Vice-President and Secretary, and T. D. Abrams, Treasurer. The
product consists of hardware specialties, including egg beaters, can openers, tack
pullers, potato mashers, ice picks, garment hangers, etc., which find a ready market
throughout the States and foreign countries. The plant gives employment to a
force of thirty people.

Mr. Bird, the President of the company, is a native of Boston, Mass., and was
born April 23, 1874. After learning the trade of machinist, he was employed by
the Hobbs Mfg. Co., of Worcester, for fourteen years, nine years of which he was
traveling salesman. In 1904 Mr. Bird located in Kingston and conducted the
Measure Mfg. Co., on Front Street, until that business was absorbed by the present
concern.

COL. JACOBUS SEVERYN BRUYN was born in Kingston, N. Y., in the
year 1751. He was the son of Severyn Bruyn, who died at Kingston in 1759, the
grandson of Jacobus Bruyn, the first of the family born in this country, and the
great-grandson of Jacobus Bruyn, who came from Norway about the middle of
the seventeenth century and founded a new home in Ulster County.

Col. Bruyn was scarcely graduated from Princeton College when the war of
the Revolution broke out. He served in Canada in the campaign of 1775 and was
with Montgomery at Quebec. He equipped at his own expense a company of in-
fantry in his native county, and led them to the seat of war. Shortly after being
promoted to the office of lieutenant-colonel he was captured at the surrender of
Fort Montgomery, and held a prisoner on 'the Jersey prison-ship and afterward
on parole on Long Island. Soon after his release Col. Bruyn was married to Miss
Blandina, daughter of Petrus Edmundus and Mary (Crooke) Elmendorf. Col.

562

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

Bruyn and his wife were prominently identified with the old Dutch Church of
Kingston, organized in 1659, and their remains are buried under the present edifice,
together with the preceding Bruyns of their immediate line.

Two sons were the only descendants of Col, and Mrs. Bruyn, namely Edmund
and Severyn. Both graduated from Princeton College and were afterward ad-
mitted to the bar, Edmund practiced law in New York for a time, and then re-
tired to a farm in the town of Wawarsing. He was never married. Severyn
made his home in Kingston, where early in life he married Catherine, daughter
of Jonathan Hasbrouck. Severyn Bruyn, like his father, was an elder in the old
Dutch Church, and devoted to all its interests; he never left home for any pro-
longed absence without placing in the hands of his minister a sum of money for
the use of the needy in the church. No communion Sunday ever came without his
being present, often returning home solely for that purpose. The two children
of this estimable couple were Augustus H. and Mary, who became the wife of
Hon. James C. Forsyth. Augustus Hasbrouck Bruyn was for many years engaged
in the tanning business. He was unmarried and lived in the house occupied by his
parents for many years. This is a stone building, which was partially consumed
in the burning of Kingston in 1777, and was afterward rebuilt. It is now the
home of the Misses Forsyth, Mr, Bruyn was a member of the Holland Society
of New York, and was identified with the interests of the Dutch Reformed Church.
He died in Kingston, October 24, 1904,

THOMAS J. BRYANT, who conducts a general store at Big Indian, is a native
of Delaware County. Born at Andes, he obtained his education in the schools of
his native place and at Stamford Academy. In 1889 he came to Ulster County and
established his present business. He is a son of Nelson and Martha Francis Bry-
ant. His father. Nelson Bryant, was a descendant of an old Delaware County
family. His mother was from North Carolina. Mr. Bryant has been twice mar-
ried. His first wife was Miss Ellen D. Wey, by whom he had three children,
Francis Dail, Virginia and Thomas. For his second wife, Mr. Bryant married Miss
Nora Whipple. They have no children. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity
and J. O. U. A. M. Politically he is a Democrat.

THOMAS TOWNSEND BUCKLEY, son of John and Phebe (Thorne) Buck-
ley, was born in Marlborough, N. Y., July nth, 1817. After attending the district
schools he, at the age of fourteen, began as clerk in a general store of his native
village. Shorty after he accepted a position as clerk in Newburgh. In 1838 he
went to New York, engaged in the wholesale drygoods business, and soon became
largely interested in the importing and jobbing trade. In 1874 he retired from
active business, spending the summers in Marlborough and the winters in Brook-
lyn. During his career he was vice-president of the Bank of the Republic, re-
ceiver of the Atlantic and Pacific R. R. Co., director of the Metropolitan Gas Co.,
and the Home Insurance Co. He was one of the executive committee of the
great Sanitary Fair in 1864, and was a member and patron of historical and art

BIOGRAPHICAL. 563

societies. He married Amelia A., daughter of William R. Thompson, of New
York.

Mr. Buckley died February 6, 1887, and his remains were interred in Green-
wood Cemetery. Two sons survive, Charles R. and John D., who spend the sum-
mer season at the country seat in Marlborough.

GEORGE BURGEVIN. — The subject of this sketch was born in Kingston in
1862. He obtained his education in the public schools of his native city and then
entered the employ of his father in the floral business.

Mr. Burgevm was married to Mabel Hanor, of New York, in 1901, and they have
had three sons. Politically he is a Democrat.

Valentin Burgevin, the father of our subject, was a native of Maintz-on-the-
Rhine and was born January i, 1819. He came to America in 1848 and located in
Kingston. Shortly thereafter Mr. Burgevin engaged in the cultivation of fruits and
vegetables, introducing home-grown strawberries, lettuce and cauliflower. In 1852
he began in a small way the culture of flowers, for which there was at that time
little or no demand. He, however, succeeded in creating a market for his product
The demand gradually increased, and with it he increased his facilities. Fifty
years have elapsed since he took up the work and the Burgevin establishment is
to-day one of the largest and most complete of its kind in this section of the
State, having a roofage of fifty thousand square feet of glass, and covering seven-
teen acres of land. They make a specialty of roses, carnations and chrysanthemums,
and their carnation known as the “Kingston Pet” was awarded the certificate of
merit by the Dutchess County Horticultural Society.

In 1896 Mr. Burgevin retired from the business and was succeeded by his two
sons, George and David.

Mr. Burgevin died January 21, 1899, and is survived by his wife, Anna (Wurtz-
berger) Burgevin and his two sons.

The handsome Burgevin block is a fitting monument to the success he attained in
floriculture.

AUGUSTUS R. BURHANS, son of Benjamin D. and Matilda (Warren) Bur-
hans, was born in the town of Ulster, Ulster County, in i860. He attended the
district school at Flatbush, this county, and then engaged in farming with his
father, where he continued until 1896, when he removed to Saugerties and pur*
chased his present ice plant, which has a capacity of about five thousand tons.

Mr. Burhans is now serving as Sewer Commissioner for the extensive sewerage
system now being constructed in the village of Saugerties. Socially he is identified
with the Masonic order. He was united in marriage to Miss Gertrude J. Renner,
of Ulster County, and they have two sons, Roger and Wallace.

CHARLES BURHANS, Treasurer of the Kingston Savings Bank, was bons
in Kingston, July 12, 1846. Jacob Burhans was the progenitor of this bianch of
the Burhans family in America. The earliest record of his life is on March 28,
1660, when he appears as a soldier on the Esopus in the Netherlandish Service m

564

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

the company of Director General Peter Stuyvesant, from whose sister, Anna
Stuyvesant Bayard, Mr. Burhans is descended. The name of Jacob Burhans stands
third on the list of members who formed the first organization of the Reformed
Dutch Church of Wiltwyck (now Kingston), December 7, 1660. From November
21, 1661, to December 6, 1664, he was Collector of Church Rates and Excise Com-
missioner. He was elected Seheppen (Magistrate) of the Court of Wiltwyck on
April 28, 1666, and was re-elected the following year. In June, 1663, during the
second Esopus War, he had two houses burned in the '‘New Village outside the
stockade.” He died some time prior to June, 1677.

Charles Burhans was educated at the Kingston Academy. When eighteen years
of age he became clerk in the State of New York Bank. He later became book-
keeper, and on January 12, 1869, was made cashier, which position he held seven
years.

On August 2, 1879, Mr. Burhans became treasurer of the .Kingston Savings
Bank and has since held that respoasible position. He is also a trustee in the
bank. He is a member of the Kingston Lodge of Masons, having joined in 1868.
In 1870 and 1871 he was Treasurer of the Village of Kingston, and held that office
in 1872 when Kingston was incorporated as a city. He has been a member of
Company B, Twentieth Battalion, New York State Militia, since its organization in
1873, and in 1875 was commissioned Inspector of Rifle Practice with the rank of
Captain. He was vice-president of the Holland Society of New York for the
County of Ulster, 1898-1901, and has been treasurer of the Kingston Board of
Education fifteen years (1887-1902). He is trustee and treasurer of the Senate
House Association, member of Kingston City Hospital Association and City Library
Association.

On December 3, 1889, he married Mary Swart, daughter of John C. F. Hoes,
D.D., pastor of the Reformed Dutch Church of Kingston from 1845 to 1867.

CORNELIUS BURHANS was born in Kingston, New York, June 3, 1821. He
obtained his education at private schools and the Kingston Academy, and at the
age of fifteen years entered his father’s store as clerk, where he remained ten years.
In 1846 he took the business and with his brother, John Salisbury, continued it until
1871, when he formed a partnership with Titus Felten and engaged in the coal and
lumber business. In 1891 this partnership was dissolved, Mr. Burhans retiring.

Mr. Burhans has been prominent in Masonic circles and was treasurer of Kings-
ton Lodge and Mt. Horeb Chapter for over thirty years. As a member of the fire
department, he was very active, serving for two years as chief engineer. In 1844
he was united in marriage to Miss Margaret Shaw, of Ulster County. Their chil-
dren are Jacob, Charles, Wm. S., Augustus and Mary Jane. Jacob Burhans, father
of our subject, was one of the foremost citizens in the early days of Kingston and
was sixth in descent from Jacob Burhans, who came from Holland and whose first
recorded service in this country is on March 28, 1660, as a soldier under Gen. Peter
Stuyvesant.

BIOGRAPHICAL.

565

WILLIAM BURHANS, of Saugerties, New York, is a native of Ulster County,
having been born in Kingston, June 16, 1851. The early years of his life were spent
near Oberlin, Ohio, and he received his education in Kingston and the public schools
in Ohio. He came to Saugerties in 1874 and entered the employ of Burhans &
Bernard, bluestone dealers, as bookkeeper, and remained with them four years.
In 1886 Mr. Burhans, with Uriah Van Etten, engaged in the coal and lumber busi-
ness, which they conducted ten years and sold to the Saugerties Coal & Lumber
Co. The six years following, he and John C. Davis were engaged in the boot and
shoe business. In April, 1902, Mr. Burhans and Joseph Keenan established the
furniture and undertaking business which they are successfully conducting to-day.

Mr. Burhans has served as postmaster eight years, four years under the Harrison
administration and four under President McKinley’s. He is now one of the vil-
lage directors, having been appointed to that office in January, 1906, to fill a
vacancy. He also served as chief engineer of the fire department in 1896, and in
1904-5 was Master of Ulster Lodge No. 193, F. & A. M.

RICHARD LALOR BURTSELL. — The Very Rev. Richard Lalor Burtsell,
D.D., was born on April 14, 1840, in the city of New York, where his paternal
ancestors had lived for more than a century. His mother, Dorothea Morrogh, of
Cork, Ireland, was a granddaughter of Francis Plowden, an English historian of
the beginning of the nineteenth century, and a lineal descendant of the Plowden
to whom Charles I. gave in 1632 a charter for New Albion, now New Jersey. R.
L. Burtsell studied as a boy at St. Francis Xavier’s College in New York, and
spent two years in the Sulpician College in Montreal, and continued his studies for
nine years in the college of the Propaganda, Rome, Italy, where in 1858 he re-
ceived the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and in 1862 the degree of Doctor of
Divinity. He was ordained to the priesthood at Rome on August 10, 1862. From
November, 1862, to the end of 1867 he was assistant to the Rev. Thomas Preston
at St. Ann’s Church, on Eighth Street, in New York. In 1868 he founded the
parish of the Epiphany, using the halls of the Demilt Dispensary for divine service.
By April 3, 1870, he had completed the erection of the splendid church of the
Epiphany, on Second Avenue, near Twenty-first Street, with a fine rectory. He
also built a well-equipped parochial school. In 1883, while remaining pastor of the
Epiphany, he established the Church of St. Benedict the Moor for the colored
Catholics of New York. In 1890 he was appointed by Archbishop Corrigan to the
rectorship of St. Mary’s Church, Rondout, where he has given steady attention
to the welfare of his parishioners, without neglecting the civic duties which he
recognized as due to his fellow citizens of Kingston.

On the occasion of a visit of Dr. Burtsell to Rome in 1904, Archbishop Farley
requested Pope Pius X. to honor him by taking him as one of his household cham-
berlains; this request was acceded to, and hence the title of Monsignor which has
been given him. St. Mary’s parish was made by Archbishop Corrigan a so-called
irremovable parish, and Dr. Burtsell declared its first irremovable pastor. At the
diocesan synod in 1901, Archbishop Corrigan appointed Dr. Burtsell his vicar-

566

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

forane for Ulster and Sullivan Counties. This position was confirmed and re-
newed by his successor, the present archbishop, Most Rev. John M. Farley, D.D.

CHARLES F. CANTINE. — Judge Charles F. Cantine, eldest son of Peter and
Sarah A. (Starin) Cantine, was born at Saugerties, November 4, 1858. He re-
ceived his preparatory education at Saugerties Academy and graduated from Rut-
gers College in 1880. He then entered Columbia Law School, and in May, 1882,
was admitted to the bar at Ithaca, N. Y. In the same year he opened an office
in Rondout and began practice as a member of the firm of P. & C. F. Cantine. In
1892 and 1893 he was a member of the Republican State Committee and was chair-
man of the Republican County Committee of Ulster County during 1893 and 1894.
In November, 1895, he was elected district attorney, holding the office nine years.
In 1904 he was elected judge of Ulster County, and in administering the duties of
his present office he has demonstrated his ability as a learned and impartial arbiter
of the law.

He was married December 21, 1882, to Mary C. Sheffield, of Saugerties. She
died February 27, 1889, leaving a daughter, Agnes L. September i, 1893, he mar-
ried Mary E., daughter of James Post, of Brookhaven, N. Y.

Judge Cantine is a direct descendant of Moses Cantine, the Huguenot, who
married Elizabeth Deyo at New Paltz in 1691. Peter Cantine, father of our sub-
ject, was the eldest of the family, representing the sixth generation. He was born
in the town of Marbletown, Ulster County, in 1831. At the age of twenty-two he
began the study of law, and was admitted to the bar in 1855. He began practice
in the village of Saugerties and was eminently successful as an attorney and
eounsellor-at-law. He was admitted to practice in the District and Circuit Courts
as well as the Supreme Court of the United States, and obtained favorable de-
cisions in some of the most intricate and important litigations in Ulster County
and on appeals to the appellate courts. In his death, which occurred December 21,
1900, the bar and county lost a man of sterling worth.

MARTIN CANTINE, manufacturer, of Saugerties, New York, is a descendant
of one of the Huguenot patentees of Ulster County. This family has since been
most influential in State and national affairs. There were Members of Congress,
Senators, framers of the Constitution of the State of New York, delegates to the
convention which submitted the Constitution of the United States for adoption,
brigadier-generals of the militia, members of Assembly, members of the Council of
Safety and officers during the Revolutionary War, county judges, among them —
famous lawyers, illustrious divines, successful business men — and it is connected by
marriage with many of the leading families of the county.

Mr. Cantine was born in Saugerties, January 22, 1866. His father, Hon. Peter
Cantine, served with distinction in many public positions and was one of the lead-
ing lawyers at the Ulster County bar, and his brother, Hon. Charles F. Cantine,
is the present county judge. After receiving an educational training in the Sauger-
ties Academy and the Seventeenth Street Grammar School in New York City,
Ma,rtin Cantine, at the age of 18 years, secured employment with J. B. Sheffield &

BIOGRAPHICAL.

567

Son, paper manufacturers, where he remained about five years, serving from office
boy to positions of responsibility. In 1888 he purchased the plant of The Alston
Adams Co., at Albany, and engaged in the manufacture of paper. He organized
the firm of Martin Cantine & Co., and on January i, 1889, they began operations in
Saugerties. In 1890 the Martin Cantine Company was incorporated, and Mr. Can-
tine was chosen president, which position he still holds and he personally manages
the entire business. In 1893 the plant was purchased and enlarged until they now
have 100,000 square feet of floor space, fully equipped with modern machinery, and
in which employment is furnished to one hundred and fifty people. In 1893 Mr.
Cantine also purchased the first right to the magnificent water power from the
John G. Myers estate, which gives him the first right on the entire creek. He also
developed electric power, his dynamos being driven by the water wheels. In June,
1890, Mr. Cantine was married to Miss Fanny, daughter of Gen. William B. Rudd,
of Lakeville, Conn., and they have two children, Holley Rudd and Francis. Po-
litically he is an ardent Republican, active in political affairs, and has served several
terms as director and two years as president of the village (1896-97).

He has been president of the Board of Education since 1900 and was chief engi-
neer of the fire department in 1899, president of the Saugerties Board of Trade in
1900, and prominently identified with the best and most important business and
social interests of the village.

PETER N. CANTINE was born near Ellenville, Ulster County, New York,
January 21, 1845. His ancestors settled in this region in early times, his grand-
father, Jacob Cantine, being a native of Ulster County. Jacob Cantine was a farmer
and blacksmith by occupation, and in politics a Whig. Fie married Ann Brodhead,
and settled upon a town in Wawarsing Township, where they reared a family of
seven children. The family has been connected with the Dutch Reformed Church
as far back as there is record. Mathew J. Cantine, the father of our subject, was
born April 13, 1808, and grew to manhood upon his father’s farm. In early life
he was a butcher by occupation, but later became a farmer. On December 2, 1832,
he married Caroline LaMoree, who was born October i, 1809, in Dutchess County,
New York. Of the six children born to them, all but two are still living. The
father was a Republican in politics. As a member of the Reformed Church the
family held a leading place, Mr. Cantine being deacon for many years. He died
February 21, 1880, his wife October 9, 1885.

Peter N. Cantine, our subject, pursued his early life upon his father’s farm, and
acquired his education in the district school and the academy at Ellenville. Enter-
ing business life, he first clerked for two years in the store of W. T. Homes, and
then, in 1869, moved to Napanoch and formed a partnership with a Mr. Cudney in
a general store, under the firm name of Cudney & Cantine. This was dissolved at
the expiration of one year, and Mr. Cantine then clerked four years for A. S.
Schoonmaker, at Napanoch. Since that time he carried on a butcher business until
September, 1906, when he sold out and is now living retired.

On October 18, 1877, Mr. Cantine married Henrietta Sagendorph, who was born
May 17, 1845, in Shandaken, Ulster County. Her grandfather, Adam Sagendorph,

568

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

came to this country from Germany when a young man; he married Elizabeth
Heavener, a lady of German descent, and settled in Columbia County, where his
son Andrew, Mrs. Cantine’s father, was born December i6, 1820. Andrew Sagen-
dorph married Amanda Trites, a descendant of an old Holland family, who was
born February 24, 1823, and Mrs. Cantine was the second in their family of four
children. Louise, the eldest, married Byron Dutcher, a farmer and merchant at Big
Indian, Ulster County. Two younger children, Horatio and Harriet, died in in-
fancy. Mrs. Cantine’s father died April 4, 1882, her mother January 24, 1893. Mr.
and Mrs. Cantine have had no children. Mr. Cantine is a Republican in politics and
has held public office in his neighborhood.

MAJOR OLIVER P. CARPENTER, Attorney, of Kingston, was born near the
village of Clintondale, town of Plattekill, Ulster County, on December 7, 1840. He
attended school in the towns of Esopus, Rochester and Marlborough and at Clinton-
dale. Later he attended the Friend’s Nine Partners’ Boarding School, at Washing-
ton, Dutchess County. He taught school, first at Clintondale, and then Highland.

In the summer of 1861, he enlisted in Company E, Forty-fourth Regiment, N. Y.
V. I. and was later detailed to serve in the Quartermaster’s Department, of the
Department of the South, under Generals Sherman, Hunter and Mitchell. Shortly
thereafter, he became ill with fever and returned home. Upon his recovery he
again enlisted in the Second New York (Harris Light) Cavalry. Pie served as ist
Lieutenant and Captain, and the night before Lee’s surrender, while in command
of the first squadron, which was the advance guard, he led them in the charge on
Appomattox Station and captured the trains of supplies which had just arrived for
Lee’s army. He was then ordered to charge upon and take a battery, and in doing
so lost his favorite horse, and was himself wounded. He was discharged from
the service as Captain, but was brevetted Major. Major Carpenter, while serving
with the famous Harris Light Cavalry, participated in those memorable battles of
the Shenandoah, under Generals Sheridan and Custer. After his discharge from
the service, he entered the University at Albany, and was graduated from the Law
Department of that institution with the degree of LL.B. on May 25, 1866. He
began the practice of law in Highland and remained there until January i, 1872,
having been elected District Attorney. He removed to Kingston, where he has
since resided. He served as Surrogate of Ulster County for the years 1887-1892,
and Recorder of the city of Kingston 1900-1905.

He was married at Highland, September 2.2, 1866, to Ethelind, daughter of Elias
M. and Mary E. (Malcomb) DuBois, and nine children have been born to them.
He is a member of Pratt Post No. 127, Department of New York, G. A. R. ; Kings-
ton Lodge No. 10, F. & A. M. ; Mount Horeb Chapter No. 75 ; Rondout Com-
mandery No. 52, K. T. ; Kosciusko Lodge No. 86, I. O. O. F. ; Franklin Lodge, K
of P., and Fraternal Mystic Circle, No. 529.

ALBERT CARR, undertaker, of the City of Kingston, was born in Washington-
ville. Orange County, N. Y., on December 7, 1840. His education was obtained in
the city school.

BIOGRAPHICAL.

569

In 1861 he enlisted in the Twentieth Regiment, N. Y. S. M., at the first call for
troops. At the expiration of the term he returned to this city. In 1862 he again
enlisted as a private in B Company, 120th Regiment, N. Y. V., for the term of
three years. Before arriving at the front he was promoted to Sergeant Major,
to date from time of leaving Kingston, August 24, 1862. Mr. Carr was promoted
to a Second Lieutenancy in 1863, and to First Lieutenant in 1864, which rank he
held until his discharge in 1865. About 1870 he engaged in the furniture and under-
taking business as a salesman, serving in that capacity until the year 1889, when he
opened his present undertaking establishment, taking with him his son, Harry P.,
who continued as a member of the firm of A. Carr & Son until the year 1900, when
he disposed of his interest in the business, and Arthur G. Carr associated himself
with it. Thus the firm name still exists as A. Carr & Son. Mr. Carr is a Repub-
lican, and has served six years as Coroner.

On August 21, 1862, he was married to Sarah* E., daughter of Peter Folant of
Kingston, and six children have been born to them, Minnie and Augusta, who died
in infancy, Harry P., Hattie F., Arthur G. and Mabel. Mr. Carr is a member of
Pratt Post No. 127, G. A. R. ; Kingston Lodge No. 10, F. & A. M. ; C. S. Clay
Lodge, I. O. O. F., and Franklin Lodge, Knights of Pythias.

JAMES EBER CASE, Deputy County Treasurer, was born in Ellenville, Octo-
ber 30, 1853. His education was obtained in the village schools and the Fort
Edward Institute, graduating from the Commercial Department of the latter insti-
tution in 1872. He first began business life as bookkeeper in the Ellenville Glass
Factory, where he remained several years. In April, 1894, he opened a boot and
shoe store in Ellenville, which he conducted until January, 1896, v/hen he came
to Kingston and took the office he now holds. He held the office of Town Clerk
of Wawarsing one term, and twelve years ago was appointed U. S. Loan Com-
missioner for Ulster County, an office he still retains. '

Mr. Case is a member of many of the local fraternal societies, in Wawarsing
Lodge No. 582, F. & A. M„ and the Chapter No. 246, R. A. M. He has been
Master and High Priest and has filled all offices in the Blue Lodge. He is also a
member of Rondout Commandery No. 52, K. T., and Cypress Temple, A. A. O.
N. M. S. He married Emma R. McKinney and two daughters have been born to
them, Lillie, died when six years of age, and Mamie, living at home. Mr. Case
died April 25, 1907.

JACOB CHAMBERS, M.D., deceased, was for many years one of the most
prominent and successful physicians in Ulster County. He was born at Stone
Ridge, Ulster County, February 6, 1852, and his education was obtained at the
Monticello Academy, Fort Edward Institute, and Phillips Academy, at Andover,
He also received instructions from a private tutor. He took up the study of
medicine at the Buffalo University, from which he graduated in 1875. He practiced
as a physician for a time in Stone Ridge, and in 1882 came to Kingston and opened
an office. He continued in practice in this city until his death, September 15, 1904,
becoming widely known as a capable physician and a skilled surgeon. In 1882 he
married Florence Kerr, a daughter of Ex-Sheriff John W. Kerr, and two children

570

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

were born to them, Letitia Josephine, who died in infancy, and Donald.

Dr. Chambers was for many years the City Health Officer and a member of the
Board of Pension Examiners. He was one of the organizers of the Police De-
partment of Kingston, and was a Police Commissioner four years. He served as
Surgeon for the West Shore Railroad, and was a member of both the State and
County Medical Societies.

The existence of the Kingston City Hospital is largely due to his energetic
efforts in furthering the project at the time of its inception. Deeply impressed with
the need of a hospital, he devoted much time in securing funds for its erection
and equipment, and for thirteen years it had no more faithful and self-sacrificing
friend and supporter than Dr. Chambers. From the day of its opening he gave to
its inmates the benefit of his rare skill as a surgeon and great experience as a
physician.

Dr. Chambers was a son of Hon. George Chambers, M.D., in his day a prominent
physician and a well-known figure in politics. He served in the Ulster County
Board of Supervisors from i86i to 1866, for the town of Marbletown. He served
one term as State Senator, and represented his district in the State Legislature.

The Chambers family sprung from the Scottish Clans of Camerons, the name
having been changed when the ancestor of the Chambers removed to France. An
old burial place still exists in Aberdeen, Scotland, where may be seen a stone
bearing the family arms, and the date 1313 is evidence that this family is one of
the oldest known in genealogical records. The ancestors of Dr. Chambers were
among the earliest settlers of Ulster County; his great-grandfather, Jacob, was a
Revolutionary Patriot, and the records show that in 1800 he was serving as
Trustee of the town of Marbletown.

DR. GEORGE CHANDLER, of Kingston, was born at Clyde, New York, De-
cember 13, 1872. The son of a Methodist clergyman, he was obliged to move from
city to city, obtaining his education from private tutors, the Bishop Scott Military
School at Portland, Ore., the Ithaca High School and the classical department of
Syracuse University. In 1895 he graduated with the degree of M.D. from the
College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, serving first as house physician
of St. Vincent’s Hospital, and later as chief of the woman’s division of the out-
patient department and assistant visiting surgeon of the same institution. He was
for a time attending physician at John Wanamaker’s New York store while prac-
ticing in New York. He is at present visiting surgeon to the Kingston City
Hospital, and surgeon-in-chief of the Benedictine Sanitarium, Kingston, where he
has practiced his profession for the past five years. He is also surgeon for the
Kingston Division of the West Shore R. R., and the Ontario & Western R. R. He
has given up general practice and limits his practice to surgery.

Dr. Chandler is a member of the County, State and National Medical Societies;
the Quiz Medical Society of New York; the D. K. E. Fraternity, and the A. M. P.
O. Medical Fraternity. He has written for a number of medical periodicals, and
the treatment of sunstroke advocated by him at St. Vincent’s Hospital has been
adopted in some of the text-books of medicine. He married Martha Schultze, a

BIOGRAPHICAL.

571

member of a prominent Syracuse family, her father being the founder o»f the
School of Fine Arts at Syracuse University. They have two children, Dan and
Fehmor.

Among the leading pulpits occupied by Rev. George W. Chandler, father of our
subject, are Taylor Street Church, Portland, Ore.; Delaware Avenue M. E. Church,
Buffalo, and the First M. E. Church, Ithaca, N. Y. Dr. Chandler’s mother, who
was Izora Chandler of New York, was the authoress of several works. “Three of
Us,” “Anthe” and “Told in Gardens of Arabia,” have been widely read. She was
equally well known as a miniature and portrait painter, having exhibited in the
Academies of New York, Boston and Philadelphia. She died August 25, 1906.

DR. ARCHIE B. CHAPPELL, practicing physician, of the town of Plattekill,
was born in Plainfield, N. J., in 1882. In 1891 his father, Samuel F. Chappell,
removed to Kingston and engaged in business, and in the Kingston Academy Dr.
Chappell received his preliminary education. He entered the Albany Medical
College and graduated from the Department of Union University in 1905. He
then located in the village and town of Plattekill, where he is now engaged in
practice.

HON, GEORGE BRADLEY CHILDS, who for many years was Secretary ana
Treasurer of the Ellenville Savings Bank, was born in Grahamsville, N. Y., Feb-
ruary 9, 1838, and died in 1897. He was a direct descendant in the seventh genera-
tion from Benjamin Childs, who came from Wales with an uncle Ephraim Childs
in 1630 and settled at Roxbury, Mass. Mr. Childs’ line of descent is as follows:
Benjamin Childs, his son Benjamin, son Penuel, his son Richard, his son Timothy,
his son Richard Dwight, the father of our subject.

George B. Childs received a fair education in the academies at Ellenville and
Monticello. Being a great reader, he acquired a wide knowledge of the best litera-
ture and kept himself well informed upon current topics. When seventeen years
of age he began selling goods for N. C. Clark of Grahamsville, Sullivan County,
and was with him as a partner for some twenty-four years. In 1877 he moved to
the homestead farm in Grahamsville to care for his father, remaining there until
1886, when he came to Ellenville and took the position of Secretary and Treasurer
of the Ellenville Savings Bank. He was one of the original trustees of that insti-
tution, at its incorporation in 1869, and the present commodious building, now
occupied by the bank, is a fitting monument to his efforts.

Mr. Childs was a Democrat, but did not take an active part in political affairs
since residing in Ulster County. Previous to that he was a leader in party man-
agement, and held a number of political positions. For five terms he was Super-
visor of Neversink, Sullivan County. In 1882, and ’83 he was elected to the Legis-
lature, served through both terms and was on the Committee on Banks and also
on a Sub-Committee of the Whole.

In 1861 Mr. Childs married Miss Adelia Decker, who died in 1869. In 1872, he
married Miss Nancy P. Smith, by whom he had two children, Amy Bradley, and
Richard T. Mr. Childs was an active and influential member of the M. E. Church of

572

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

Ellenville, of which he was trustee. Socially, as in business circles, he held a
leading place. He was a member of Lodge No. 582, F. & A. M., Wawarsing. His
death left a void in business and financial circles of Ellenville which was acutely
felt.

JOHN N. CLARE, Attorney of Kingston, was born in this city, in 1858, and
his education was obtained at St. Vincent’s College, Westmoreland County, Pa.,
from which he graduated in 1876. He read law in the office of Schoonmaker and
Linson, and was admitted to the bar in 1882. He remained in the office of his
preceptors until 1891, and has since been engaged in general practice and in the
real estate and insurance business. Politically, Mr. Clare is a Democrat and has
filled various offices in the city. He was appointed City Recorder and in 1893
elected to the office. In 1896, he was elected Justice of the Peace. In 1899, he was
Secretary of the Board of Health. Mr. Clare married Miss Anna E. Long, of
Saugerties, and they have five children, Agnes Alecita, Leo Wenceslaus, Alysusis
Frances, Mary Ernstine and Helen Marie.

FRANKLIN CLARK, proprietor of the Clark Crate & Basket Factory of Marl-
borough, was born in that village in 1854. He was engaged with his father in
fruit farming until 1892, when he established the above industry, which covers an
area of 80x300 square feet. Upwards of 150,000 crates are turned out annually in
addition to 2,000,000 fruit baskets, giving employment to about thirty people.
Besides supplying the local trade Mr. Clark ships large quantities of his product to
the outside market.

In 1904 Mr. Clark was united in marriage to Edith Vernon Merritt^ of Marl-
borough. They have one son, Lawton, born in 1906. His father, Augustus Clark,
is also a native of Ulster County and was for many years identified with the
great fruit farms of southern Ulster.

MARIUS E. CLARK, President of the First National Bank of Ellenville, was
born in Grahamsville, Sullivan County, New York, August 12, 1863. His education
was obtained in the schools of that place and later he attended the Seminary at
Chappaqua, and the Fort Edward Collegiate Institute. In 1882 he, with his
brother, engaged in mercantile business in Grahamsville, which they conducted
five years. Mr. Clark then accepted a position as bookkeeper in the First National
Bank of Ellenville and has since remained with that institution. He was elected
President of the bank on June 22, 1897; previous to that time for a number of
years held the position of cashier.

Mr. Clark married Lenora Terwilliger, a daughter of Jonathan Terwilliger of
Ellenville. Nathan C. Clark, the father of Marius, held the office of Vice-President
of the First National Bank for thirty-five years previous to his death, February
25, 1906.

R. D. CLARK, eldest son of Nathan C. and Clarissa A. (Childs) Clark, was
born at Grahamsville, Sullivan County, N. Y., July ii, 1857. He attended the Dis-

BIOGRAPHICAL.

573

trict School for several terms, and a term each at Eastman's Business College and
the Monticello Academy. In 1876 he associated himself in business with his father
at Grahamsville under the firm name of N. C. Clark & Son. In 1880 they built
a modern store at Fallsburgh Station, and under the same firm name, conducted
a large general business. In 1890 he purchased his father’s interest, and in 1892
established a separate business, known as the R. D. Clark Feed, Coal & Lumber
Plant, which proved successful from the start. In 1904, after a quarter of a cen-
tury at Fallsburgh, he purchased a residence at Ellenville, moving there in October.
The next year he bought the O. H. Harting & Co. coal and oil business, which he
is now conducting with success, having disposed of his entire business interests at
Fallsburgh.

In politics, Mr. Clark is a staunch Democrat. His church relations are with the
Dutch Reformed, in which he is an Elder. In 1881 he married Harriet, |the
youngest daughter of Isaac N. Grant and Hannah Leroy. Their three children
are Augusta C, Harry N. and Richard Eugene.

FREDERICK J. R. CLARKE, President of the National Ulster County Bank,
of Kingston, is a native of Orleans County. liis parents were Thomas S. Clarke,
a banker of Albion, N. Y., and at one time Surrogate of the County of Orleans,
and Caroline Isabella (Rathbun) Clarke.

He was born in Albion, N. Y., September 18, 1852. After leaving school Mr.
Clarke accepted a position with Lane & Paine, Druggists, of Rochester, N. Y.,
with whom he remained as prescription clerk, until John Wyeth, the well-known
jobber in druggist supplies of Philadelphia, offered him a position as traveling
representative. This Mr. Clarke accepted and was engaged in up to 1875, when
he established himself in the drug business in Kingston. In 1897 Mr. Clarke was
elected President of the National Ulster County Bank, upon the death of Charles
D, Bruyn, the former President. Besides attending to the interests of this bank he
is also First Vice-President of the Ulster County Savings Institution, Manager of
the City of Kingston Hospital (since its establishment). Trustee of the Industrial
Home, Trustee of the Kingston Club, of which he was also President for two and
one-half years. Treasurer of the local branch of the State’s Charities Aid Associa-
tion, and a vestryman in St. John’s Church.

Mr. Clarke married Mrs. Kate (Wright) Adams, a daughter of the late Chief
Judge Wm. B. Wright, of the Court of Appeals of this State, and they have one
daughter, Isabella Wright Clarke. Mr. Clarke is one of the most enterprising and
liberal minded citizens of Kingston, and is very highly regarded in both business
and social circles.

ALPHONSO TRUMPBOUR CLEARWATER is a descendant on the paternal
side of Theunis Jacobsen Klaarwater, one of the early Dutch settlers of Ulster
County, and on the maternal side of Jean Baoudoin, the distinguished Huguenot
exile from France. Born at West Point, N. Y., September ii, 1848, son of Isaac
Clearwater and Emily Baoudoin Trumpbour. Educated at the old Anthon Grammar
School in the City of New York, and at the Kingston Academy. Studied law at

574

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

Kingston with Senator Jacob Hardenburgh and Judge Augustus Schoonmaker.
Admitted to the Bar November 14, 1871. Elected District Attorney of Ulster
County 1877; re-elected 1880. Again elected to that office 1883. Declined Republi-
can nomination for Member of Congress 1884; declined the same nomination 1886.
Elected County Judge of Ulster County 1889; re-elected to that office 1895. Re-
signed the County Judgeship 1898 to accept the appointment by the Governor of
New York of Justice of the Supreme Court of the State in place of Alton B.
Parker, then elected Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals. At the request of
David Dudley Field he prepared many of the provisions of the Penal Code and Code
of Criminal Procedure of New York. Appointed Commissioner by the Board of
Supervisors of Ulster County, 1895, to supervise the translation from Dutch into
English of the Dutch Records of the county covering the period from 1661 to 1684.
Completed that work in 1898. Was delegate of the New York State Bar Associa-
tion to the Universal Congress of Lawyers and Jurists at the Louisiana Purchase
Exposition at St. Louis, 1904; was appointed 1906, by the Governor of New York,
one of the original members of the Hudson-Fulton Celebration Commission. In
1903 Rutgers College conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Laws in recogni-
tion of his many tributes to the character and achievements of the Dutch. He is
a Trustee of Rutgers College, Trustee of the Kingston City Hospital, President
of the Twaalfskill Club of Kingston, Trustee of the Old Senate House Association
of Kingston, President of the Wiltwyck Rural Cemetery Association of that place,
Vice-President of the Ulster Historical Society, was one of the founders and
since its formation one of the Vice-Presidents of the Huguenot Society of
America; was one of the founders and the first Vice-President for Ulster County
of the Flolland Society, is a member of the Union League, Metropolitan anci
Grolier Clubs of New York, of the Mt. Desert Club and Swimming Pool Club
of Bar Harbor, Maine; was one of the founders, has been President and is a
Trustee of the Kingston Club, is a member of the Huguenot Society of London,
of the Huguenot Society of South Carolina, of the Huguenot Society of New Paltz,
of the St. Nicholas Society of New York, of the Society of the Sons of the Revo-
lution, of the American Bar Association, of the New York State Bar
Association. Is an honorary member of the ancient and famous St.
Andrew’s Society of Charleston, South Carolina ; of the Ulster County-
Bar Association, of the New York Historical Society, New York Genea-
logical and Biographical Society, of the Ex Libris Society of London,
of the American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society, of the Historical
Society of Newburgh Bay and the Highlands; of the Minnisink Historical
Society, and is corresponding member of the Historical Societies of various States.
On the visit of the Holland Society to Holland in 1888, he delivered on behalf of
that Society the address in response to the address of welcome by the Burgo-
master of Rotterdam ; he delivered the address at the opening of the great Protestant
Mission at Menilmontant, Paris, France, in June, 1888, and delivered an address upon
the Disregard of Law at the request of the New York State Bar Association at
its annual meeting at Albany in January, 1906. Has written many papers and de-
livered frequent addresses upon the Influence of the Dutch and Huguenots in the

BIOGRAPHICAL.

575

formation of the American Republic; and has made a large collection of original
and unpublished manuscripts relative to that subject. Is author of “The Influence
of the Dutch and Huguenots in the Formation of the American Republic”; “Louis
XIV and the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes”; “The Huguenot Settlement at
New Paltz in Ulster County”; “The Huguenot Medals in the British Museum”;
“The Founders of New Amsterdam”; “The Dutch Governors of New York”;
“The Dutchman of Albany and the Iroquois”; “The Dutch Settlement of Esopus”;
“The Jurists of Holland”; “The Significance of Dutch Local Names”; “Lord
North and the American Colonies” ; “Ulster in the War of the Revolution” ; “The
Adoption of the First Constitution of New York at Kingston, 1777”; “The Struggle
for the Highlands During the War of the Revolution”; “The Inaugural of George
Clinton, First Constitutional Governor of New York, at Kingston”; “Memorial
Address Upon the Life and Services of Abraham Lincoln”; “Memorial Address
Upon the Life and Services of General Ulysses S. Grant”; “Memorial Address
Upon the Life and Services of William McKinley”; “Ulster in the War of the
Rebellion”; “A Protest Against the Destruction of the City Hall of New York”;
“The Antiquity of Free Masonry”; “Heredity and Criminal Propensity”; “Lom-
broso and the Danger of Sentimental Criminology”; “The Moral Accountability
of Criminals;” “Goethe and the Sentimentalists”; “The Trial of Christ from the
Standpoint of a Roman Lawyer of the Time of Tiberius.” Has been and now is
counsel in many important causes of far-reaching public consequence. Married in
1875 Anna Houghtaling, daughter of Colonel William D. Farrand and of Julia,
daughter of Henry Houghtaling of Kingston.

BYRON CLEARWATER was born in the Town of Lloyd, November 16, 1863.

He attended the local schools and in 1883 engaged as clerk with George W.
Rose, and in 1889 he entered into partnership with him in the general merchandise
business in Highland, becoming sole proprietor in January, 1900. In 1901, Mr.
Clearwater was appointed Town Clerk, has been twice re-elected, and at present
holds that office. He is a stanch Republican, is identified with the Masonic fra-
ternity, the K. of P., and is Treasurer of the M. E. Church and Secretary of the
Highland Fire Department.

Mr. Clearwater married Charlotte M. Breckenridge of Albany, and their family
consists of three children, George Wilbur, Mabel Henrietta and James Brecken-
ridge.

T. VAN BUREN COCKBURN was born in Kingston in 1852, and his education
was obtained at the public schools and the Academy of this city. In 1876 he
embarked in the hotel business at Mount Pleasant, Ulster County, and in 1893
purchased the property. This hotel for the past twenty years has been a favorite
resort during the vacation season for people who have become acquainted with its
advantages as a country home.

Mr. Cockburn is a member of the Elks and one of the most popular hotel men
in the Catskills. He has been twice married. His first wife was Miss Idella
Longyear, who died in 1888. For his second wife Mr. Cockburn married Miss

576

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

Nettie Lamson of Rondout. They have five children, Marguerite, William Roscoe,
Louise, Elizabeth P. and Susan.

Mr. Cockburn has always taken a great interest in the success of the Republican
party, and in 1906 was selected as a delegate to the Senatorial Convention. He
resides in Kingston during the winter months.

EDWARD B. CODWISE, civil engineer of Kingston, was born at Elizabeth,
N. J., May 9, 1849. He attended the Brooklyn schools and graduated from the
Brooklyn Polytechnic School in 1865. He spent two years in study in France,
and upon his return to Brooklyn was appointed assistant engineer by the Com-
missioners of Sewerage of Bergen, now a part of Jersey City, N. J. He was
later engaged in engineering work for the Erie, and the New Jersey Southern
railroads, and during the building of the Wallkill Valley R. R. he became assistant
engineer and was engaged in its construction from the town of Gardiner to Kings-
ton. In 1872 he was appointed to a position on the Callao, Lima & Orayo R. R.
of Peru, South America. On his return to this country he was employed at
various times in the capacity of engineer by the New Jersey Southern, Erie,
Wallkill Valley, New York Elevated R. R. and other public enterprises. In 1881 he
was appointed resident engineer of the West Shore R. R., which was constructed
under his supervision from Highland to Kingston. He has since been employed as
chief engineer of the Ulster & Delaware and the Delaware & Otsego Railroads, and
for years has been City Engineer of Kingston.

In 1888 he was made a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers.
Mr. Codwise was married March 28, 1872, to Emma Snyder of Rosendale, and
three children have been born to them — Harriet F., Henry R. and George Wallace.

THEODORE COLE of Pine Hill, N. Y., is a descendant of an old and honored
family, and is recognized as one of the valued citizens of Ulster County. He was
born at Pine Hill, N. Y., March 27, 1868, attended school there and has always
made that village his home. His father, George Cole, has been for the past thirty-
five years engaged in conducting the leading hotel of the village, and our subject
succeeded to the business in 1904. This hotel (The Pine Hill Hotel) accommo-
dates forty guests and caters especially to the commercial trade.

HON. HENRY C. CONNELLY, of Kingston, was born in Phoenicia, town of
Shandaken, September 25, 1832. He is of Dutch-Irish parentage and a great grand-
son of Michael Connelly, the first of the family in America, who came from the
North of Ireland and settled in New York State, prior to the Revolutionary
period. His son William, born in Olive Township, Ulster County, became a phy-
sician and also a Baptist preacher, following both vocations on horseback through
the county.

Henry C. Connelly obtained his education in one of the District Schools of the
town of Esopus, and Charlotteville Seminary, Schoharie County. In 1852 he took
charge of a store in Eddyville, owned by his father and cousin, in which he
became a partner two years later. He later bought his partner’s interest and

BIOGRAPHICAL.

577

conducted the business alone until i860, when Thomas W. Cornell purchased a
half interest in the business. In January, 1872, Mr. Cornell sold his interest to
C. B. Shafer, and the firm became known as Connelly & Shafer. They also
took up the manufacture of Rosendale cement, which has since developed to such
an extent that it is now one of the largest industries in the county.

Mr. Connelly has for many years been an active worker in the Republican
party. In 1867 he w^as elected to the office of Supervisor of the Town of Esopus
and served four terms. In 1873 he was elected State Senator to represent the
Fourteenth District and served one term; and again in 1885 he was chosen and
elected to a second term in the Senate.

He married Cornelia A. Aldrich of the town of Rochester, on April 12, 1854,
and she died in March, 1857. He took for his second wife Lucinda Manning, of
West Park, and nine children have been born to them.

Mr. Connelly was President of the Kingston Savings Bank for twenty-five
years, a Director in', the Kingston National Bank for many years, and is now
holding the office of Vice-President of the latter institution. His membership
with the Methodist Episcopal Church dates back fifty-four years, and in 1880 he
was a delegate to the M. E. General Conference at Cincinnati. He is a member of
Rondout Lodge, F. & A. M., Royal Arch Masons and the Rondout Commandery.
He has been a member of the Masonic fraternity since 1872.

HENRY C. CONNELLY, Jr., of the Connelly Drug Company, is numbered
among the progressive merchants of Kingston. Born at Port Ewen in 1870, he
obtained his education at the public schools and Kingston Academy. He then
entered the employ of the Ulster & Delaware R. R. Company as clerk to the Pas-
senger Agent, where he remained ten years. In 1898 he purchased the store prop-
erty at the corner of Broadway and East Strand, remodeled the building, and
established a handsome modern pharmacy. In 1902 he purchased the drug busi-
ness of Van Deusen Brothers, which was established over fifty years ago, and
successfully managed both stores.

Mr. Connelly is Past Master of Rondout Lodge No. 343, F. & A. M., a member
of Mount Horeb Chapter No. 75, Rondout Commandery No. 52, and Mecca Temple
Mystic Shrine. In politics he is a Republican.

In 1896 he married Alice N., daughter of John B. Alliger of Kingston, and they
have two children. His grandfather, William Connelly, was born at Olive and
married Margaret Ann Terpening of Esopus. Their son, the father of Henry,
married Mrs. Harriet A. Secor. He died at Port Ewen in 1890, in his fiftieth year.

BENJAMIN M. COON was born in Saugerties, New York, September 2, 1839,
and received his preliminary education at the schools and Academy of that place,
and the Fort Plain Seminary. He read law in the office of the late Peter Cantine
and graduated from the Albany Law School in 1864. He was admitted to the bar
in December, 1864.

Mr. Coon has served as Justice of the Peace of Saugerties for some thirty years,
was School Trustee nine years, and has held the office of Police Justice since

578

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

1891. He has served the village as both Clerk and Corporation Counsel, and was
President of the village several terms. Mr. Coon has always been actively identified
with the Congregational Church of Saugerties and for the past twenty-nine years
has filled the office of Clerk of that church. In 1864 he was united in marriage to
Mary h., daughter of Colonel Samuel M. Post. Our subject is a son of Abraham
and Eliza (Myer) Coon.

JAMES CHILSON CORNISH, Proprietor of the Cornish House, Pine Hill,
N. Y., was bom in New York City, October 15, 1829. After attending the public
school there, he learned the carpenter’s trade with his father. His first visit to
Ulster County wa.s in 1848. when his father built the Guigou cottage, he working
with him, and afterwards erected a school-house. He was engaged in the con-
tracting and building business for some thirty years, both in New York City and
throughout the country, largely in Delaware County, and in that time constructed
thirty- three churches, all under contract, in different sections of the country. In
1880 he built the hotel at Pine Hill, which he now conducts, a handsome structure,
with accommodations for 125 guests. Mr. Cornish has always taken an active in-
terest in public affairs. He has served as Trustee of the Village of Pine Hill, of
which he is now President, and is also President of the Water Company. Socially,
he is identified with the Masonic Fraternity. He is the father of the following
children: Rev. James Marion, Matthew DeWitt, Francis Amelia and Jacob Miller
Hasbrouck Cornish.

On July II, 1849, Mr. Cornish married Margaret Peters Hasbrouck, daughter of
Jacob I. Hasbrouck. She was born April 28, 1827, and is still living.

Jacob Miller Cornish, father of our subject, was a native of Newtown, L. I., and
served as a soldier in the war of 1812. He married Miss Susan W. Patrick of
Connecticut.

The Cornish family are descendants of Thomas Cornish, who died in Newtown
in 1662. He had four sons and one daughter, John, James, Thomas, Benjamin and
Elizabeth. Following the close of the Rebellion, Mr. Cornish lived for fifteen years
in Delaware County, and was for nine years a member of the High School Board.

CHARLES B. COX, Cashier of the Saugerties Bank, was born in Poughkeepsie,
N. Y., May 4, 1869. His parents removed from Poughkeepsie to Wallkill in 1875.
Our subject attended the Saugerties Schools, graduating from St. Mary’s Parochial
School at the age of sixteen. He then entered the County Clerk’s office as Re-
cording Clerk, and served as Deputy Clerk for one year and a half, remaining in
the Clerk’s office for nearly eight years, when he resigned to accept a position as
teller in the Saugerties Bank. Upon the death of James O. Carnwright, in 1896,
three years after entering this institution, he was appointed cashier, which position
he still most acceptably fills.

Mr. Cox is a son of Bernard Cox, who was for many years engaged with J. B.
Sheffield & Co., in the manufacture of paper. His mother was Mary Jane (Bradley)
Cox. He is unmarried.

During his business life in Saugerties, Mr. Cox has gained the confidence of the

Thomas J. Deyo.

BIOGRAPHICAL.

579

people of this vicinity to a marked degree. He is identified with the St. Mary^s
R. C Church, Knights of St. John’s, Saugerties Commandery No. 145, E. S., and
also a member of Kingston Council No. 275, Knights of Columbus.

HON. ISAAC N. COX, of Ellenville, was born at Fallsburgh, August i, 1846,
and was but eight years of age at the time of his father’s death. Mr. Cox, after
successively engaging in boating upon the Canal and school-teaching, finally, to-
gether with his brother, John P., established a mercantile business in Ellenville,
which has grown from an humble beginning to one of the substantial enterprises of
that region. On January 6, 1888, he married Lizzie M. Stoddard. In 1875 he was
elected Supervisor, but declined a nomination for re-election. He was again elected
in 1883, and served four terms, the last as Chairman of the Board.

In 1886 he was appointed by President Cleveland, Chairman of a Commission
to examine and report upon the condition of the Northern Pacific R. R. before a
subsidy would be granted by the Government.

In 1890 he was elected to Congress by over 2,000 majority in a district then
strongly Republican. He was a member of several important committees. In
1894 Mr. Cox was appointed by Governor Flower one of the five Commissioners
on Fisheries of the State, to serve five years. In local institutions he is a Trustee
of the Ellenville Savings Bank, a Director of the Home Savings Bank of Ellenville
and the Orange County Trust Company, and a vestryman in the Episcopal
Chuxch.

JOHN P. COX, of Ellenville, was born in 1843, in Fallsburgh, Sullivan County,
N. Y. His elementary education was obtained at home, under the instruction of
his parents, and later he attended the Academy at Ellenville, and Claverack College.
In 1859 he began teaching school during the winters and in the summer months
operated a canal boat. He taught in Homowack and Spring Glen, Ulster County,
and Phillipsport, Sullivan County, for about four years, and then embarked in the
mercantile business at Ellenville and Homowack, in connection with his wholesale
trade, running a boat, carrying commodities from Albany to Wurtsboro, returning
laden with lumber. For one year he carried on this business alone, and then
his brother Isaac joined him and took charge of the interests of the firm, in Ellen-
ville. Other forms of business were taken up ; they did general contracting, sup-
plied railroads with ties; dealt in lumber and built and conducted a grist-mill.

Mr. John P. Cox has managed the New York end of the business and has spent
the greater part of his life in that city. In February, 1865, he was elected Captain
of Company B, Ninety-third, N. F. & I., but this company was not sent to the
front. In 1871 Mr. Cox married Miss Harriet Buchanan. They have three chil-
dren, Frank B., Eliza and John.

WALTER S. COX, Ellenville, N. Y., was born June 15, 1856, in Mountain Dale,
Sullivan County, and lived there until he was fifteen years of age. He attended
the Monticello Academy, Ellenville High School and Fort Edward’s Collegiate In-
stitute. When about eighteen years old he began teaching school. For three years

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER

580

he was a lumber and freight boatman on the Delaware & Hudson Canal. In De-
cember, 1872, he became associated with his brothers, John and Isaac, in the firm
at Ellenville. Mr. Cox married in 1879 Miss Eliza A. Goodsir, and to them have
been born three children, Raymond G., Catherine M, and Fred H. Mr. Cox was
elected to the Board of Supervisors in 1888 and re-elected in ’Sg-’go and ’91. In
1893 he was appointed by Governor Flower as member of a Commission to locate
the Eastern New York Reformatory, and through his influence the site was finally
selected at Napanoch, Ulster County.

Mr. Cox is a member of the F. & A. M., Ellenville Lodge No. 582, and I. O.
O. F., Lodge No. 352, of Ellenville, of which he has been Master and Noble Grand.

CRAGSMOOR INN, one of the largest mountain hotels in the county, is situ-
ated on the Cliff Farm, a tract of three hundred acres, comprising a large part of
the Cragsmoor plateau, about four miles from the village of Ellenville. The Inn is a
comparatively new structure, large and commodious with modern conveniences,
and stands at a distance from the main road, the approach being through a private
park,

Cragsmoor Inn stands on an elevation of eighteen hundred and fifty feet above
sea level and fifteen hundred feet above the level of the surrounding valleys.
Nature here combines all the requisites of a summer home, pure water, exhilarating
mountain breezes and scenery unsurpassed. The geologic make-up of the Shawan-
gunks presents much of rare beauty and intense interest, and in the very heart
of this romantic range of mountains lies Cragsmoor. Among the places of interest
both historic and natural in the vicinity, may be mentioned Sam’s Point, and the
wonderful Ice Caves, containing snow and ice through the entire year, attracting
many hundreds of visitors. The present owner of the Cragsmoor Inn is Mrs. A. D.
Sturdevant, who purchased the property three years ago, since which time she has
made many extensive improvements.

The house accommodates about 125 guests. An especial feature worthy of
mention is the excellent Cliff Farm Dairy. This is in every sense a model dairy,
where scientific methods of milking and storing are in use; the buildings and
equipments are in a perfect state of sanitation and the product undergoes a steriliz-
ing process, insuring absolutely clean, pure milk.

The lessee and manager of this valuable property is Mrs. Robin Dale Compton,
a successful hotel proprietor of New York.

THE CRISPELL FAMILY. — This family originated in Artois, France, whence
they fled to Holland to escape religious persecution, and was founded in America
by Anthony Crispell, who arrived in New York on the Gilded Otter, April, i860,
and shortly thereafter located in the village of New Paltz, of which he became one
of the original twelve patentees.

Peter Crispell. who represented the sixth generation, was a practicing physician,
and in 1837 located in Hurley, where he remained until his death in 1880, at the
age of eighty-four. He was a prominent Republican and served as United States
loan commissioner at different times, and as a member of the General Assembly of

BIOGRAPHICAL. ’ ’ 581

New York. His business was that ot banking, and he was an officer in the Ulster
County Bank a number of years. He married Catherine Elting of Hurley, who
died in 1856. Their son, Abraham Crispell, chose the profession of his father, and
graduated with honors from the University of New York. In 1849 he began prac-
tice in Rondout during the cholera epidemic. At the beginning of the Civil War
Dr. Crispell left home and joined the Union Army as Surgeon in the Twentieth
Regiment. He was afterwards detailed as Health Officer at Hilton Head, S. C.,
where he remained two years, and was then detailed to take charge of the United

States Hospitals at Buffalo, continuing until the close of the war, when he returned

to Rondout. Dr. Crispell was twice married. His first wife was Miss Adeline
Barber. They had one daughter, Kate A., who became the wife of the late Dr.
George C. Smith. In 1855 Ri*- Crispell married Jane A. Catlin and two sons were
born to them, Henry S., now President of the H. S. Crispell Drug Company, and
Charles W.; physician and surgeon, both residing in Kingston. Dr. Crispell died
November 4, 1881, in his fifty- ninth year. Of his skill in his profession it is
unnecessary to speak, as his talents were known and appreciated for a period of
thirty years in this city and in adjoining portions of the State, as well as in the
Army.

Charles W. Crispell was born in Kingston, N. Y., in i860, and graduated from
the Kingston Academy in 1881. Pie then entered the University of Vermont, from
which he received the degree of M. D., which was supplemented by a post-
graduate course at Bellevue. Pie is a member of the New York State Medical

Society, the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society, St. Nicholas
Society (New York), the Holland Society, and has taken the various chairs in
Masonry. Dr. CrispelPs practice is limited to consultation and microscopical
examinations, and he has recently spent much time abroad visiting the famous
medical institutions of Europe in order to perfect his education in his chosen
specialty.

In 1904 Dr. Crispell married Airs. Emma K. Booth, widow of Dr, Wilbur H.
Booth of Utica,

BENJAMIN F. CRUMP, a well known citizen of Saugerties, was born, January
I, ^853, in that village and received his education in its public schools. He began
his business career in the paiier mills of J. B. Sheffield & Son at the age of
eighteen, since which time he has been almost continuously identified with the
paper interests. In 1894 the Sheffield Paper Company acquired the mills which
were later sold to the Diamond Mills Paper Company, under the management of
Col. G. W. Thompson, Mr. Crump becoming assistant manager and Col, Thomp-
son, president. The diamond Mills Paper Company also owns and operates three
other paper mill plants in this State and New Jersey. In 1901 The American
Novelty Paper Company was organized in Saugerties, as an auxiliary to the
Diamond Mills Paper Company, for the manufacture of crepe and other fancy
tissue papers, and Mr. Crump was chosen its Treasurer and Manager, which
position he still holds.

In politics Mr. Crump has always been an ardent Republican and an earnest

582

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

party worker. He is a member of Trinity Episcopal Church and is affiliated with
Ulster Lodge No. 193, F. & A. M., and Confidence Lodge No. 51, I. O. O. F. He
has always been willing to put forth any effort in the support of any project having
for its object the welfare and improvement of his native town.

WILLIAM D. CUNNINGHAM, Republican, who represents the Second Assem-
bly District of Ulster County in the Assembly, was born in Ellenville, Ulster
County, New York, May 4, 1879. He is a grandson of Lieutenant Frederick
Freileweh of the 120th Regiment, N. Y. Vol. Inf., who was killed at Gettysburg.

His earlier education was obtained in the common schools and the High
School of Ellenville. In 1896, in competition, he won one of the two Cornell
University Scholarships from Ulster County, entitling him to four years’ free
tuition in the University. In order to obtain the wherewithal to support himself
during a part of the course at least, he then taught school for about a year at
Tobasco, N. Y., and Socannissing, entering the College of Law of Cornell in 1897.
He acted as tutor much of the time, preparing a number of students for the bar
examinations with success. He was graduated from the College of Law in 1900,
with the degree of LL. B., being awarded by unanimous vote of the Law Faculty
the Judge Boardman Scholarship Prize of $100, for the highest standing in the
class throughout three years.

After a year spent in practice in New York City, he opened an office for the
practice of law in Ellenville, where he is at present successfully engaged, Mr.
Cunningham has also done some law writing, being co-author of a hand-book of
every-day law for laymen.

Unanimously nominated by the Republicans for Assembly in 1903, Mr. Cunning-
ham received 4,946 votes and his opponent, Joseph A. Smith, received 4,278 votes
for that office.

Speaker Nixon in 1904 appointed Mr. Cunningham a member of the following
Assembly Committees: Codes, Federal Relations, and State Prisons.

Unanimously renominated in 1904, Mr. Cunningham received 5,617 votes to 4,735
votes for his Democratic opponent, William Lounsbery, Jr.

In 1905 Mr. Cunningham was appointed a member of the following Assembly
Committees: Judiciary, Public Printing, and State Prisons.

Unanimously renominated in 1905, Mr. Cunningham received 5,313 votes to
3,872 for his Democratic opponent, Fred H. Smith.

In 1906 Speaker Wadsworth appointed Mr. Cunningham a member of the fol-
lowing Assembly Committees: Chairman of State Prisons; member of Judiciary
and Public Education.

Unanimously renominated in 1906, Mr. Cunningham received 4,759 votes to 3,366
votes for his Democratic opponent, Charles E. Meeker. For the session of 1907
Speaker Wadsworth appointed Mr. Cunningham, Chairman of the Committee on
Education and a member of the Committee on Judiciary, and the Committee on
Charitable and Religious Societies.

BIOGRAPHICAL.

583

U. S. GRANT CURE, editor and proprietor of the Pine Hill Sentinel, was born
at Pine Hill, Ulster County, December 24, 1864. There he spent his boyhood days,
attending the public schools. In 1891 he purchased the Pine Mill Sentinel, entered
upon his editorial duties in 1892. The paper supports Republican principles and is
outspoken and fearless in advancing all measures which will promote the public
welfare. Under the able management of Mr. Cure, it has become a most popular
journal and has the patronage of the best people in the community. In addition
to his editorial work, Mr. Cure is engaged in the fire insurance and real estate
business. In 1902 President Roosevelt appointed him Postmaster of Pine Hill and
he is administering the affairs of that office in a highly satisfactory manner.

Fraternally he is a member of Shandaken Lodge, K. of P. of Phoenicia, and F.
& A. M. No. 389, of Margaretville,

Mr. Cure was married at Pine Hill, December 28, 1888, to Mary Dales, who was
bom October 16, 1869. To them have been born three children, Fred D., bom
April 20, 1890; U. S. Grant, Jr., born December 19, 1895, and Elizabeth G., born
January ii, 1899. His father. Jacob W. Cure, was a native of Shandaken. He died
February 9, 1875, aged fifty-five years. He was a farmer in his earlier days and
later engaged in general merchandising, and was a man of considerable importance
in the community.

PETER D. CURLEY was born in Saugerties in 1881. After completing his edu-
cation at the public schools of his native place, he engaged with his father in the
grocery and liquor business. In 1901 he assumed control of the business, which
he has since conducted, and enjoys an extensive wholesale trade in Saugerties and
surrounding towns.

Mr. Curley is a member of Arion Lodge of Eagles and is numbered among
the substantial business men of Saugerties. He was united in marriage to Margaret
A. Jordan, of Albany, and they have four children. Daniel Curley, father of the
subject of this sketch, was a native of Delhi, Greene County, and was engaged in
the tanning business there previous to locating in Saugerties. During his residence
in Saugerties he took an active interest in public affairs, serving as director of the
village and two terms as Coroner.

THOMAS J. CUSACK, who has been a resident of Kingston since 1883, is
prominent in business and political circles of the city. Born in New York in 1855,
he removed with his parents to Poughkeepsie in 1861 and spent his boyhood days
attending the public schools of that place, and serving his apprenticeship as
plumber. In 1874 he accompanied his father to California, where he remained
until 1882. Returning East, he embarked in the plumbing business in Kingston and
has built up an extensive trade.

Mr. Cusack is President of the City Plumbing Board and has served four years
as Alderman. He is a member of the Knights of Columbus and the B. P. O. E.
Politically, he is a Democrat. He married Miss Morgan of Poughkeepsie, and they
have five children. Their eldest son, Thomas J., Jr., is at present a student at
Rutgers College.

584

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

HON. CHARLES DAVIS, the present Surrogate of Ulster County, is a de-
scendant of an honored old Colonial family. He was born in the village of Sau-
gerties, September 9, 1853, and is a son of John Winne and Cornelia Cooper Davis.
His preliminary education was obtained in his native village, where he graduated
with honor from the Saugerties Academy. He then entered Rutgers College, from
which he graduated in the class of 1874. He studied two years at the Albany Law
School, was admitted to the bar in 1876, and at once entered upon the active prac-
tice of his profession in Saugerties, where he has been ever since.

In 1885 he was elected Counsel to the Ulster County Board of Supervisors, and
this marked his formal entrance upon public life. He soon developed a taste for
the political arena, showing a fondness and aptitude for participation in the local
contests and conflicts of his party. Being always an enthusiastic and energetic Re-
publican, he was favorably received into the inner circle of party management in
his native county and soon won his way to party control. He became chairman of
the County Central Committee some years ago and has been prominently connected
with that organization ever since.

He was elected to the New York State Senate from his district in 1895, where
he served upon many important committees until 1899. He was first elected to the
office of Surrogate of his county in 1898, and re-elected to that office in 1904.

Upon the creation of the State Water Supply Commission by the Legislature of
1905 he was appointed on that commission by Governor Higgins, for the short term
of one year. To this position he was reappointed in 1906 for the full term of five
years. Judge Davis is a member of the Saugerties Club, the Kingston Club and the
University Club of New York. He is now in the prime of life and is numbered
among the more prominent men of his county.

JOHN C. DAVIS was born June 6, 1856, in Saugerties, N. Y. His great-great-
grandfather, Sampson Davis, came from the city of Philadelphia to Ulster County
in the year 1740 and settled in the town of Kingston, was a signer of the articles
of association at Kingston in 1775, and served in one of the three regiments furnished
|by Ulster County in the war for Independence. He was a Sergeant in Captain
Wyncoop’s Company. Sampson’s son, Joseph Davis, who was born at Flatbush in
1761, was also a soldier in the same company, father and son both serving their
country for seven years. They were of the army that forced Burgoyne to surrender
at Saratoga and helped to thrash the Hessians at Bemis Heights.

Sampson Davis had two children, John and Joseph, the latter from whom John
C. Davis is descended by his first wife, Sarah Turk, being a grandson of Sampson
the second, youngest son of Joseph.

Sampson Davis, the second, was born at Flatbush, April 13, 1793, married
Sarah Myer, and to them were born nine children, John W. Davis, father of John
C. Davis, being the second son.

John W. Davis was born February 5, 1819, at Flatbush. He left the farm early
in life and after being engaged as clerk in the village of Kingston, and in business
at Madalin, Dutchess County, took up his residence in Saugerties in 1846, and

BIOGRAPHICAL. 585

engaged in the boot and shoe business, which he continued till the year 1873, when
he retired, having accumulated a handsome competence.

John C. Davis was educated at Saugerties Academy and the Eastman Business
College of Poughkeepsie; at the age of sixteen he entered into partnership with
his father and so continued until 1877, when his father retired, leaving him sole
owner of the concern.

Mr. Davis conducted the business alone until 1889, when Mr. William Burhans
became a partner, and in 1893 Mr. Davis organized the Davis Clothing Company.
President Roosevelt appointed him Postmaster of Saugerties during his first
administration, in which position Mr. Davis served four years. He was married in
1879 to Miss Kate S. Freleigh, a daughter of Hon. Benjamin M. and Elizabeth
(Mynderse) Freleigh of Saugerties, and eight children have been born to this
union. John C. Davis has been and is identified financially and socially with
Saugerties’ leading interests. He has served upon the village Board of Education
and Board of Directors.

WILLIAM MADISON DAVIS, of the firm of Forsyth & Davis, the Wall
Street stationers, was born in Kingston, New York, in 1868. After finishing
his studies at the Ulster Academy, he engaged as bookkeeper with the Newark
Lime and Cement Company, where he remained two years. He was then for ten
years with Forsyth & Wilson, as bookkeeper and salesman, and in 1895 accepted
a position with the Remington Typewriter Company, in their New York office,
which he occupied until 1897, when he returned to Kingston and the above part-
nership was formed.

Mr. Davis is a member of No. 10 Lodge, F. & A. M., and the Kingston and
Twaafskill Clubs. In 1906, he was united in marriage to Elizabeth, daughter of
the late Dr. C. W. Deyo, of Kingston.

RICHARD DAWE, was born in Devon County, England, in 1852, and obtained
his education at the public schools of that place. In 1873 he came to America
and located in Rondout, entering the employ of the Newark Lime & Cement Com-
pany, and with the exception of the year 1876, when he went to Colorado to
inspect gold and silver mines, was continuously identified with that concern for
thirty years, or until it was dissolved in 1903.

Mr. Dawe is a member of the I. O. O. F., No. 413, and the Knights of Pythias,
No. 76. He is a member of the First Baptist Church of Rondout, in which he
has been a choir singer for twenty-one years. He has been identified with church
choir and choral societies of the city for many years. Mr. Dawe has been twice
married. Llis first wife, Maria Bonds of England, died in 1877. He took for his
second wife Mrs. Davis, sister of Enoch Carter, in 1878. They have two children
living, Richard Carter and LeRoy.

Enoch Carter was born in Newburgh, N. Y., November 10, 1841. Early in
life he removed with his parents to Kingston, where he obtained his education and
learned the trade of tinsmith. In 1877 he embarked in the stove and tin business,
which he conducted until his death in June, 1900, since which time the business has

S86

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

been carried on by his son Enoch. He was a grandson of Jonathan and Jane
(Linderman) Carter, who was engaged in the manufacture and sale of tobacco in
Newburgh from 1799 to 1820, the year of his death. Charles Carter, the father of
Enoch, was born in Newburgh, June 10, 1819, and died July 16, 1868. In 1839
he married Martha A. Schrieder. They had eight children, all now deceased except
Eleanor Jane, wife of Richard Dawe. Enoch Carter was a prominent and
influential citizen of Kingston. He was twice elected Alderman, and also served
as Supervisor. He was a member of the Knights of Honor, the American Legion,
the Sons of Veterans, and was President of the Merchants’ Association. The
Carter family of Newburgh were prominent in the political and social history of
that place, and the public are indebted to them for the valuable collection of
manuscript and other relics, which are deposited in Washington’s Headquarters
there.

MARY G.A.GE DAY, M. D., daughter of Henry Van Tassell and Lucy (Grover)
Gage, was born in Worcester, N. Y., in 1857. She attended the public schools of
her native town and the Charlotteville Seminary, and later had a year’s work in
the medical preparatory course at Cornell University. She was graduated from the
department of medicine and surgery of the University of Michigan in 1888 and was
Resident Physician of the Michigan State School for Dependent Children ten
months. She then took a course in the New York Post Graduate Medical School
and Hospital. She practiced medicine in Wichita, Kansas, six years, and in 1897
received a license to practice medicine and surgery in New York from the Regents’
and the New York State Board of Medical Examiners, and has practised in
Kingston since August, 1897.

Dr. Gage Day takes an active interest in all matters pertaining to the advancement
of lier chosen profession. She is Secretary of the Medical Society of the County of
Ulster, a member of the Medical Society of the State of New York and the
American Medical Association. She is also a member of the American Association
for the Advancement of Science, and a permanent member of the Alumni Associa-
tion of the University of Michigan. She is the Medical Gynecologist of the
Kingston City Hospital.

ALBERT DECKER, Supervisor of the town of Gardiner, and a coal and
lumber dealer of that place, was born in the town of Shawangunk, January 4, 1839.
When twenty-two years of age he came to the town where he now resides, and
remained there until 1870. He then engaged in farming in Orange County, and in
1883 returned to Gardiner and bought the LeFever farm, which he still owns. In
1889 he moved to the village of Gardiner and entered into partnership with W. J.
Goodgion in the coal and lumber business, which was continued five years, when
Mr. Decker purchased his partner’s interest and has since conducted the business
alone.

Mr. Decker is a Republican, has served two terms as Highway Commissioner and
held the office of Town Assessor three terms. At the fall elections of 1905 he was
nominated to the office of Supervisor of the town and was elected by ninety-seven

BIOGRAPHICAL. 587

majority, that being the largest majority ever secured by a candidate in the town
of Gardiner since the organization of the town.

He married Mary E. Goodgion, of Gardiner, and they have one daughter, Susan
E., now the wife of George Harrison, an artificial stone manufacturer of New York
City, residing in Hackensack, N. J.

HENRY DECKHOUT of Saugerties was born in Albany, N. Y., September 2,
1861. He attended school there and early in life began learning the industry in
which he has since become so proficient. He first engaged wdth the Adams & Bolt
Company of Albany as a helper; was advanced rapidly, and in three years was
considered so skillful that he was offered a position with the Whitmore Manu-
facturing Company of Holyoke, Mass., to take charge of a department in the
works. This position he held for ten years, when he came to the Martin Cantine
Company as Superintendent of the entire plant, a position he still retains. Mr.
Deckhout was married to Anna Bartell of Albany, and they have a family of six
children, three boys and three girls, Stephan J., who married Sarah E. Krout,
Maggie, married Clifford Abell, Anna married Charles W. Brice, Henry J., May and
Charles. Stephan J. has one son, Henry. Mrs. Abell has one daughter, Anna, and
Mrs. Brice has one son, Charles. Henry and Stephan Deckhout hold excellent
positions under their father with the Martin Cantine Company. Mr. Deckhout is a
member of Ulster Lodge, F. & A. M., and also of the Saugerties Club.

J. A. DECKER, M. D., of Ulster Park, was born in Kerhonkson, Ulster
County, June 5, 1850. He attended the district schools of that place and Fort
Edward Academy. He then entered the Michigan University and graduated from
the Literary and Medical department of that institution in 1872. He came to Ulster
Park in August of the year following and has since been engaged in the practice of
his profession at that place. He is a member of the Ulster County Medical Society,
the Knights of Pythias and the Odd Fellows, having occupied all offices in the
latter order.

Dr. Decker has been twice married. His first wife was Rebecca Norris, daughter
of Albert M. Norris of Ulster Park, and two children were born to them — Albert
Norris and Naomi Belle. Mrs. Decker died April i, 1883, and the two children
died of diphtheria in 1885. He married for his second wife, in 1884, Mrs. Jane
(Perrine) Jones, daughter of James H. Perrine of Rifton, and they have one son,
McDonald.

ADDISON E. DEDERICK was born at Catskill, Greene County, N. Y., in 1850,
and obtained his education in the schools of that place. In 1870 he came to
Kingston to learn the carpenter trade, and in 1888 engaged in business as a
general contractor and builder. Among the notable buildings he has erected are
the residences of Dr. E. H. Loughran, fudge G. D. B. Hasbrouck, George Coyken-
dall, ex-Congressman George J. Smith, Judge Betts, Ogden Winne, Charles Freer,
Sheriff Webster and many others. The Holy Cross Church, the Jewish Synagogue
of Kingston and the Catholic Church of Stony Hollow were built by him. He

588

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

also constructed the plants of the Standard Oil Company at Kingston and New-
burgh,

Mr. Dederick, always an active Democrat, served five years as Alderman of the
Second Ward and as Assessor under the Brinnier administration. In 1872 he was
married to Anna B. Knight, a descendant of the Chambers and Hasbrouck families ;
they have seven children. Mr. Dederick is of German and French Huguenot
descent. His father, Peter Z, Dederick, a I'esident of Greene County, died in 1891
in his sixty-second year. He was married to Sarah Wrightmyer, a member of the
Wrightmyer-Overbaugh families of Catskill, who^ were of French and Holland
descent.

DR. WILLIAM C. DERBY, a leading dentist at Ellenville, is a descendant of a
family which has been prominent in Orange County for over two hundred years.
The Derbys were among the first settlers of this region, owned large tracts of
land under original grants from the English Sovereigns. Isaac Derby, our subject’s
grandfather, was born in Orange County, and was left, not deeded, 200 acres of
land where the City of Newburgh now stands. Representatives of the family took
an honorable and distinguished part in the early history of our country, especially
during the Revolutionary War. William C. Derby, our subject, was born June 6,
1828, in Wallkill Township, Orange County, spent his boyhood on his father’s
farm and attended the district school until he was fifteen years of age. In 1851
he came to Ellenville and studied dentistry with Dr. H. H. Doan. He then estab-
lished himself in business in Ellenville and has enjoyed for about fifty-five years
the leading patronage of the vicinity. On December 28, 1853, he married Miss
Elizabeth Smart, and to them were born five children, three of whom died at an
early age. Frank S. is a dentist in New York. Harry C. is also a dentist, practicing
with his father. Dr. Derby has taken a prominent part in politics and is a member
of the Democratic party. He was Town Clerk nearly fifty years ago, and has been
both President and Trustee of the village, and in 1881-1882 served as Supervisor.
Socially, he is a Mason, for fifty years a charter member of the lodge at Ellen-
ville, and is much esteemed by the people in Ellenville and wherever known.

WILLIAM DERRENBACHER, manufacturer and wholesale and retail dealer
in confectionery, was born in Rondout, N. Y., August 10, 1857. He attended the
schools of his native city and then engaged with his father in the grocery trade,
with whom he remained five years. He spent ten years in New York in the manu-
facture and sale of confectionery, with Henry Heide, In 1888 he returned to Rond-
out and established a confectionery business, and in 1903 established the Washing-
ton County Confectionery, in which he has been eminently successful. The Derren-
bacher’s confections find a ready market throughout the States of New York, New
Jersey, Connecticut and Massachusetts. His factory gives employment to between
thirty-five and forty hands.

JOHN R. DEVANY, Attorney-at-Law, of Ellenville, N. Y., is a native of
Tompkins County, New York. He w'as born May 21, 1862, educated in the Cort-

BIOGRAPHICAL.

589

land Public Schools and Cornell University, and began the study of law with
George L. Waters of Cortland, N. Y. He then entered the office of his preceptor,
completed his course with Schoonmaker & Linson of Kingston, and was admitted to
the bar in 1888. Mr. Devany began the practice of his profession in Walden,
remaining there only six months, when he removed to Ellenville, where he has
since resided and practiced. In 1883 he taught school in Accord in the old school
house where Judge Alton B. Parker formerly taught. His family consists of wife
(formerly Miss Lizzie Decker, a daughter of Marcus Decker and a first cousin to
Mrs, Alton B. Parker), and a family of four children, lone, age seventeen, Norma,
eleven, Margaret, nine and Ella, seven.

Mr. Devany served as Police Justice of Ellenville for four years. He is a
member of the Board of Education and identified with the Masonic fraternity, Wa-
warsmg Lodge, of which he is at present Senior Warden.

HON. DANIEL M. DEWITT, of Kingston, was born in Paterson, N. J.,
November 25, 1837. In 1845 parents removed to Brooklyn, where he resided
until 1861, Mr. DeWitt graduated from Rutgers College in 1858, and in 1861
came to Ulster County and assumed the position of Principal of New Paltz Academy.
He remained there one year, when he was elected to the office of District
Attorney and re-elected in 1865. 1872 he was elected a member of Congress and

served one term. He also served one term in the New York State Assembly and
one term as Surrogate of Ulster County.

Mr. DeWitt took up the study of law in New York and was admitted to the
bar in 1858. For years he conducted a successful law practice in Kingston.

Mr. DeWitt is an author of wide reputation. In 1S94 his book on “Mary E.
Surratt” was published, followed by “The Impeachment and Trial of Andrew
Johnson.” He has also written numerous articles and reviews for historical and
other magazines. He married Mary A. McDonald of New Brunswick, N. J., and
five sons have been born to them, Charles, Richard, William C, David and
McDonald.

William C. conducts a flourishing general insurance business in Kingston. In
1898 he married Ella Kerr, daughter of J. W. and Eliza (Davis) Kerr. One child
has been born to them, John Warren DeWitt.

Richard DeWitt, deceased, was for years cashier of the National Ulster County
Bank. One son survives him, Richard Herbert DeWitt.

Charles, the eldest son, and David are in the employ of William C. One son,
Charles, and a daughter, Mary Antoinette, have been born to Charles and Mar-
garet (Phelan), his wife.

McDonald, the youngest son and only lawyer of his generation, is a rising
attorney in New York City.

CHARLES D. DEYO. — The old French Huguenot name of Deyo occupies a
conspicuous place in Ulster County history, and the subject of this sketch is
among the rising young attorneys of Kingston. Born at New Paltz, Ulster
County, March 12, 1877, he obtained his education at Kingston Academy and a two

590

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

years’ course at Yale. He attended the Albany Law School, graduating from that
institution in 1902, and has since been engaged in the practice of law at Kingston.
Mr. Deyo takes an active interest in politics and is a firm believer in Democratic
principles. He is a son of Dr. Charles W. and Cornelia (Wurts) Deyo, natives of
Ulster County. His ancestors emigrated to America in the sixteenth century.

GEORGE DEYO, Assistant Superintendent of the Eastern New York Reform-
atory at Napanoch, Ulster County, was born in Ellenville, March 4, 1862, and is a
son of William H. and Susan (Haight) Deyo. He attended the local public and
high schools and later engaged with Baily & Deyo, with whom he remained several
years. During this time Mr. Deyo served as Town Clerk for two terms, and as
Supervisor for a like period. He was elected County Treasurer, served out one
term, was re-elected, but resigned before his second term had expired to accept
the position of Warden of Clinton Prison, to which he was appointed January i,
1901. After serving six years in that capacity, he was appointed to the office
he now holds. Mr. Deyo was one of the Commissioners who were appointed by
Governor Flower in 1893 to erect this reformatory, and he has since taken a great
interest in its development.

He is a member of the Masonic Fraternity, Blue Lodge, Qiapter, Commandery,
Shrine, etc. His family consists of a wife, formerly Miss Nora Bates of Madison
County, and two children, Barbara and William H., Jr.

PHILIP DEYO was born in New Paltz, N. Y., in 1862, and received his educa-
tion at the schools and Academy of his native village. He then engaged with his
father in the New Paltz store, and in 1889 became a partner in the business under
the firm name of S. Deyo & Son, dealers in general merchandise. Since his father’s
death in March, 1904, Mr. Deyo has conducted the business alone. He is one of
the Trustees of the New Paltz Academy. He was united in marriage to Miss
Ella Rogers and they have one son, Philip R.

Solomon Deyo, father of our subject, was a descendant of one of the oldest
families in Ulster County, and a leading business man of New Paltz. The store
which he established in 1857 is one of the most pretentious in Southern Ulster. He
served as Secretary of the New Paltz Normal School, was President of the New
Paltz Savings Bank, a director of the New Paltz National Bank, and was Secretary
and Treasurer of the New Paltz Cemetery Association.

THOMAS J. DEYO, a prominent business man of Wallkill, Ulster County, was
born in the town of Newburgh, Orange County, September 7, 1839. His ancestors
were early settlers in Ulster County of Huguenot stock, being lineally descended
from Pierre Deyo, one of the patentees, through Abraham Deyo, his second son, who
was born at Hurley, Ulster County, October 16, 1676, and married Elsie Clear-
water. He died in 1725, leaving one son, Abraham, who married Elizabeth
Dubois, who had a son Daniel, who married Margaret LeFevre, and they left a son
Abraham, who married Ann Brodhead, by whom he had one son, Daniel A. (father
of our subject), and two daughters, Maggie, who married Abraham Deyo, and

BIOGRAPHICAL.

591

Polly, who married Andries Bevier. Daniel A. Deyo was born March 10, 1788. Was
first married to Maria Elting, who died in 1816, leaving two children, Catharine,
born 1812, and Abraham D., born 1815. Mr. Deyo’s second marriage was to Petro-
nella LeFevre, by whom he had four children: Cornelia, born 1819, who married
Andrew Bloomer Brodhead, born 1820, and died 1889. Andrew, born 1821, died
1824. Johannes L., born 1825, died 1862. Their mother died 1826 and in 1836
Mr. Deyo married Arabella Hallock, who was born 1815, died 1880, leaving two
daughters, Anna and Margaret, both living. Margaret, the widow of John H.
Sillick.

Thomas J., who married Mary E. Richmond in 1869, at once took up his residence
in Wallkill, where he established a coal and lumber business and for three years
was the local agent for the Wallkill Valley R. R., from which he resigned and
gave his entire time to his business, to which he added fire insurance and real estate,
with the idea in view of building up a successful business. As a thoroughly public
spirited citizen Mr. Deyo has devoted time and capital in promoting business enter-
prises for building up the village, and always loved to see it grow and prosper.
Mr. and Mrs. Deyo were blessed with three children, Catharine W., Abram
Hallock, who died at the early age of twenty-five, leaving a widow, Elizabeth
Senior Deyo, the second son, Warren V. Deyo, is now a partner in his father’s
business and has lately taken for his wife Alice E. Graham, a descendant of George
G. Graham, who represented Ulster County for two terms in the State Legislature
in the early part of the last century.

WM. H. DEYO, of Ellenville, is a lineal descendant of Christian Deyo, a member
of the great French family. Sixes De Ion, who, fleeing from Catholic vengeance, came
to this country and became, about 1675, a Founder of New Paltz. The Sixes De
Ion were mountain chieftains, A. D., 1050, holding at Chateau De Ion, in the Jura,
the pass from France to Switzerland, later Knights of the Crusades, Huguenot
Grandees, etc. Christian Deyo married Jeanne Vebau; all of their five children
were born in Europe. From Pierre their only son was born between 1646 and 1650,
who married Agatha Nicol, Wm. H. Deyo is in direct descent, and is of the eighth
generation in this country, being the third son of Christian Deyo, 4th.

Wm. H. Deyo, our subject, was born in Ulster County, Town of Rosendale,
September 25, 1835. He attended the local schools and after leaving school learned
the trade of paper-making. In this he was engaged for some six years. He then
came to Ellenville and followed boating upon the D. & H. Canal ; later he engaged
in the lumber business, and in 1872, in association with Edwin J. Bailey, purchased
the Tuttle & Bro. business, which they have since conducted. Mr. Deyo has served
as President of the village of Ellenville, for several years, and as Village Trustee
for ten years. He is also Vice-President of the Ellenville Savings Bank. He is a
stanch Republican in politics, and a member of Wawarsing Lodge No. 582, F. &
A. M. His family consists of wife (formerly Miss Susan Haight) and three
children, viz,, George, who was warden of Dannemora Prison and is now Assistant
Superintendent of the Eastern New York Reformatory at Napanoch; Lelia, married
to John C. Johnson, and Helen, married to William R. DuBois.

592

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

Honor and integrity have ever characterized Mr. Deyo’s methods, and he will
leave to his descendants the priceless heritage of a good name.

R. F. DIEDLING, M.D., is a native of Greene County, N. Y. He attended
the Catskill Academy and Union University and graduated from the Albany Medical
College in 1896. Dr. Diedling for two years following his graduation was Physician
and Surgeon in the Elmira Reformatory. In 1898 he settled in Saugerties and has
just erected (1906) in that town a very commodious and substantial residence. Elis
family consists of wife, formerly Miss Maud Caroline Brockner of Saugerties,
and two children, Margaret and Rudolph.

Dr. Diedling is a member of the County Medical Society. He was class orator
at the Catskill Free Academy and class poet at the Albany Medical College. He is
also identified with the Masonic Brotherhood of Saugerties, of which he was
Senior Warden in 1905.

THOMAS DINAN, brick manufacturer at East Kingston, is a native of Nyack,
Rockland County, New York, where he obtained his education. He farmed for a
time and then engaged in the coal business a fev; years. He was elected Superin-
tendent of the Poor of Rockland County, serving six years, and has been a Director
of the People’s Bank of Haverstraw for the past twenty years.

Mr. Dinan has been engaged in the manufacture of brick since 1884,, conducting
yards at Haverstraw and Fishkill. In 1904 he purchased his present yard in Ulster
County, with a capacity of 12,000,000 brick annually, giving employment to seventy-
five men. He married Miss Anova Butler and they reside in Newburgh, N. Y.

ALICE DIVINE, M. D., daughter of Dwight and Millicent J. (Hatch) Divine,
was born at Ellenville, N. Y., in 1868. After finishing her preparatory education
at the High School, she entered the Medical Department of Cornell University, from
which she graduated in 1900, and has since been engaged in the practice of medicine
in Ellenville.

Dr. Divine is a member of the County and State Medical Societies and the
American Medical Association. She is also a member of the New York Academy
of Medicine and occupies a prominent position in both professional and social
circles.

C. DWIGHT DIVINE of Ellenville, New York, was born January ist, 1873. He
attended the public schools of the village, and finished his education in Phillips
Academy, Andover, Mass. Immediately after completing his studies, Mr. Divine
became associated with his father, Dwight Divine, Sr., in the manufacture of cutlery
in his native town. He has had direct charge of these extensive knife works since
1892 and in the superintending of this business, has exhibited most excellent ability.
He has become interested in other important financial institutions, is a Director in
the First National Bank of Ellenville, President of the Board of Education, and a
member of the local Fire Department. Mr. Divine is a Republican in politics and
has served as Chairman of the Republican Town Committee. He is also a member

BIOGRAPHICAL.

593

of the F. & A. M. Mr. Devine married Jessie Battershall Donaldson, a daughter
of James W. Donaldson, and they have one daughter, Millicent Frances.

DWIGHT DIVINE, President of the Ellenville Savings Bank and a manu-
facturer, of Ellenville, was born March i8, 1841, at Divines Corners, Sullivan County,
New York. The Divine family is of French descent, and the founders of the
American branch were early settlers in New England, prominently identified with
public affairs, and later with the anti-slavery cause.

John PI. Divine, father of our .subject, was a school teacher in Sullivan County
and in the State of Ohio in his early manhood. Later (in 1866) he became
interested in merchandising at Ellenville, under the firm name of Decker & Divine.
In 1873 he organized the trading firm of Divine, DuBois, Parks & Co., at Living-
ston Manor, N. Y. He was one of the original incorporators of the Union Bank
of Monticello and of the First National Bank of Ellenville, and for many years was
a Director in both institutions. He was also active in organizing the Ellenville
Savings Bank and for years was one of its trustees. He was intensely loyal during
the war for the Union and rendered much valuable service, by encouraging enlist-
ments and assisting families of soldiers. In 1839 he was married to Maria, daughter
of Richard D. Childs, of Sullivan County. She died November 13, 1850, leaving
two children, Dwight, our subject, and James, who died August 10, 1870, age twenty-
two years,

John Divine departed from this life October 5, 1895, leaving to his descendants
the record of a successful life, and an unblemished reputation.

Dwight Divine received his education in the common schools and the Monticello
Academy. Shortly after arriving at his majority, he enlisted as a private in the
One Hundred and Forty-third Regiment, N. Y. V. L; was commissioned Second
Lieutenant of Company C September i, 1862, and was promoted to First Lieutenant,
March 30, 1863. On the battlefield of Bentonville, N. C., March 19, 1865, he was
promoted to Captain and was later commissioned Brevet Major.

Mr. Divine served with his regiment in the defense of Washington until early
in 1863, when his command was sent to the front. From that time to the close of
the war, they were constantly in active service. A few months after his enlistment
Mr. Divine was ordered with a small detachment of his regiment to New York
City to help enforce the draft that had been stopped by the riots that
occurred while the Gettysburg Campaign was in progress. While absent, on this
service, his regiment was transferred from the Army of the Potomac and assigned
to Hooker’s Twentieth Corps, Army of the Cumberland, and participated in the
engagements at Lookout Mountain, Missionary Ridge and the continuous battle from
Chattanooga to Atlanta. Detached service not being to Mr. Devine’s liking, he
applied to the War Department to be returned to service in the field, rejoined his
regiment, in Georgia, participated in Sherman’s march to the sea and was constantly
with his regiment, until Johnson’s surrender, which ended the war; the marches
and manoeuvering of his regiment from Bridgeport, Ala., to Washington, covering
over seventeen hundred miles. The regiment ranked among the best in the service
and in Gen. Hooker’s farewell address, delivered from the front of the Astor

594

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

House, New York City, he said, “He could truthfully say, of the One Hundred and
Forty-third Regiment, what could be said of but few fighting regiments, the
Johnnies never saw their backs,” Mustering out with his regiment at New York
in July, 1865, Major Divine returned home.

In 1866, in association with John Divine, John H. Decker, Nathan C. Clark, and
George B. Childs, and under the firm name of Decker & Divine, he became the
managing partner in a general mercantile business at Ellenville. Subsequently, Mr.
Divine had become largely interested, as stockholder and auditor, in the Ulster
Knife Company, a corporation which had, through the failure of its selling agents,
become so badly crippled that his associate stockholders determined to abandon
the enterprise. He was so averse to this, that he became sole owner and has
through many obstacles built up one of the most important industries in the
region, employing a large force of skilled mechanics and sending his product to
every State and Territory,

Mr. Divine is President of the Ellenville Savings Bank and the Ellenville Water
Works. In 1886 he was married to Mellecent J., daughter of Cornelius Hatch, of
Monticello, N. Y. They have four children, Allie, Charles D., Jennie and John H.
He is Past Commander of Ward Post, No. 191, G. A. R., and a member of Wa-
warsing Lodge, No. 582, F, & A. M.

WALTER C. DOLSON, Postmaster of Kingston, was born in that city, Novem-
ber 19, 1854. He attended the Kingston Academy and upon leaving school began
learning the trade of painting and decorating with his father, Peter J. Dolson, who
established the painting business in 1857. In 1881 Walter Dolson became a partner
with his father and together they ran the business until the latter’s death in 1891,
when the son succeeded to the business and has since conducted it at the original
location.

A Republican in politics, Mr. Dolson has been prominent in the local field for many
years and has occupied various important offices. He has twice held the office of
Alderman. He has for the past seven years been a member of the Board of
Education and was for six years a member of the Board of Health. In 1897 he was
appointed Alms Commissioner. In May, 1902, he received the appointment of Post-
master of the City of Kingston and is acceptably filling that responsible office to-
day, Mr. Dolson is a member of the Kingsotn Lodge of Masons, the C. S. Clay

Lodge, I. O. O. F., the Wiltwyck Lodge, K. >of P., the American Mechanics and

Kingston Encampment, I. O. O, F., and is an Exempt Fireman. He has one son,
Arthur.

REV. JAMES A. DOOLEY, of Milton, pastor of the Roman Catholic Church,
of that village, is a native of New York City. He was educated at the Troy
Seminary and St, Joseph’s College and ordained to the priesthood at Troy, N. Y.,
by the Bishop of Albany, in 1889. Following his ordination for ten years he was
located in New York and in 1900 was appointed pastor of the church at Milton,

where he has since officiated and he is most highly regarded. He is an accom-

plished scholar and profound theologian.

BIOGRAPHICAL.

595

DANIEL E. DONOVAN was born in County Cork, Ireland, on the nth day of
November, 1827, and came to America in August, 1844. He first engaged in
business in the manufacture of lime at Wilbur in 1850, and in connection with that
conducted a grocery, flour and feed business. In i860 he entered the wholesale
North River Bluestone business at Wilbur. From 1884 to 1887 he was engaged in
the construction of the Staten Island Rapid Transit Railroad, and in the latter
year commenced the making of crushed stone at Round Island in the Hudson
River, retiring from active business in 1903. Mr. Donovan served as one of the
Commissioners of the Wallkill Valley Railroad for five years. He was married in
1856, having nine children, four of whom survive.

C. L. DUBOIS, of Highland, Cashier of the First National Bank, is a descendant
of one of the original patentees of New Paltz. He was born in Highland, February
7, 1877, and is a son of Theron DuBois. Mr. DuBois attended school there and in
Poughkeepsie, and entered the bank in igoo. He is identified with the Masonic
Fraternity and Odd Fellows Lodge, and is one of the most highly regarded and
progressive young business men in Ulster County.

NATHANIEL H. DUBOIS was born in the village of Marlboro, December 27,
1815, in the old DuBois homestead. He is a grandson of Colonel Louis DuBois,
who was born September 14, 1728, presumed to be a son of Louis DuBois,
a delegate to the Provincial Congress in 1775 and later. Prior to the year 1760,
Col. DuBois settled in Ulster County, purchasing 3,000 acres of land lying on both
sides of the Old Man’s Kill, and built the house in 1770, now occupied by John
Rusk, and in which Nathaniel H. DuBois was born. Col. DuBois was actively
engaged in the War for Independence. He had held the rank of Major in the
British Militia, entered the ‘‘Continental Line” as Captain in James Clinton’s
regiment, was subsequently promoted to Major of a Newburgh regiment, and
November 17, 1776, was commissioned Colonel of the Fifth Regiment under Gen.
Clinton. Major DuBois, as he was commonly called even after his promotion,
served with distinction and was highly recommended to Congress by the Governor.
In the spring of 1777 he was stationed in the Highlands and was there when Fort
Clinton and Montgomery were taken by the British in October of that year.

At Fort Montgomery, the brunt of that desperate and heroic resistance fell on
Major DuBois and his troops; they suffered severely and the Major was taken
prisoner and detained in New York for nearly a year, when he was exchanged for
a Colonel, on December 22, 1779, he resigned his commission and retired upon half
pay. He died in 1802. His children were Nathaniel Louis, Wilhelmus, Margaret
Mary and Rachel. Louis DuBois, son of Major DuBois, owned 900 acres of land
to the north and west of Old Man’s Kill and was in the milling and farming
business. His land was sold in 1842 when Samuel Harris purchased part of the
old homestead, 172 acres of land. Louis married Anna Hull of Marlboro, who died
in 1865, at the age of seventy-eight, the mother of twelve children, two of whom
died in infancy, the others being, Margaret R., who married Louis W. Young, Louis,
who died in 1854 ; Amanda, who married Samuel Harris, and died in 1875 ; Melissa,

596

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

wife of William C Goddard; Nathaniel H., our subject; Clementine W., who
married Reuben H. Rohrer; David L.. who died in St. Paul; Cornelia B., who
married Dr. Nathaniel Deyo (now deceased), and died in Newburgh; Anna,
widow of Henry E. Lehman, and Marcus D., who died in 1904.

Nathaniel DuBois remained in Marlborough. After leaving school he was for a time
employed as a clerk in Newburgh; then he attended the Kingston and Newburgh
Academies to finish up his education. After this for two years he was in business
in New York City. In 1831 his father died, leaving a large estate consisting of a
dock, grist-mill and a woolen mill. The mother was left as executrix and Nathaniel
was appointed manager of the property. In 1842 the property was divided among
the heirs. In i860 Mr. DuBois went to Kansas and was engaged in the real estate
business. During 1863, 1864 and 1865 he was employed in the U. S. Revenue Service
as Assistant Assessor for the township of Plattekill and Marlboro. In 1893 he
became interested in the Columbus Trust Co., of Newburgh, and was made Second
Vice-President. On December 15, 1845, Mr. DuBois was married to Julia Ferries
of New Paltz. She died July 12, 1849, the mother of two children.

The children were, Solomon Ferris, born October 28, 1846, died April 12, 1847,
and Julia F., born May 22, 1847, married February 28, 1867, to O. B. Whitney. Mr.
DuBois was again married April 17, 1864, to Margaret Pitts, of Newburgh. She
died June 27, 18 — . No children. DuBois took an active interest in political mat-
ters and in 1852 was a candidate for the Legislature, being defeated by only 17
votes.

From 1840 to 1880 he was Clerk of the Board of Electors. Although not a
church member, Mr. DuBois has given liberally to the support of church affairs
and donated $1,000 to keep the cemetery grounds in good condition at Marlborough.
He also donated the town clock, which is placed in the Presbyterian Church.

CHARLES DUMOND was born in West Hurley, New York, December 10, 1840.
He attended the district schools and assisted his father on the farm until 1858,
when he learned the trade of wagon making, serving an apprenticeship of three
years. When Civil War was declared, young Dumond was among those who
responded to Lincoln’s call for troops, enlisting in Company A of the famous 120th
Regiment, N. Y. Volunteers. At James City, Va., Mr. Dumond was among those
who were made prisoners, being held in captivity sixteen months, much of the time
in Libby Prison.

After serving three years in defence of his country, Mr. Dumond returned to
his trade of wagon making in his native town, continuing until 1894, when he
established his present grocery store at Hurley. In 1897 was appointed Post-
master by President McKinley and was re-appointed by President Roosevelt.

Mr. Dumond was united in marriage to Miss Jane C. Elmendorf, who died in
1906. Levi Dumond, father of our subject, was for many years Justice of the
Peace in West Hurley, and in 1855 represented his town as a member of the Board
of Supervisors. He was one of the founders of the Dutch Reformed Church of
West Hurley.

BIOGRAPHICAL.

597

J. D. W. DUMOND, M. D,, of West Shokan, N. Y,, was born in Hurley, January
14, 1865. He attended the Hurley Public Schools and the Kingston Academy and
afterwards took up the study of medicine, graduating from Bellevue Medical Col-
lege, Class of ’86. Mr. Dumond then began practicing in Millerton, Dutchess
County; from there, he removed to Kingston, N. Y., and eventually located
permanently in West Shokan, where he enjoys a large practice. His family consists
of self, and wife, formerly Miss Anna Houghtaling. He is identified with different
social and benevolent institutions.

M. J. DUNCAN was born in New Jersey, March 31, 1840. He attended school
there and resided in that State up to 1897, when he became Superintendent of the
F. H. Leggett estate at Stone Ridge, Ulster County, which necessitated his re-
moval from New Jersey to assume charge.

Mr. Duncan is a Freemason and a man of considerable experience in managing
extensive properties. He is very highly regarded by all and enjoys the esteem of
the citizens of Stone Ridge in a marked degree.

J. F. SCORESBY EASTGATE, M. D., was for more than twenty years a very
highly respected and popular physician of Ellenville. He was born in that village
October 29, 1857, and died June 2, 1906. He was the son of Thomas and Mary
Scoresby Eastgate. His father died when our subject was an infant, since which
time both he and his mother made their home in the Scoresby family residence.

By birth, environment and training the bent of his life pointed to the medical
profession, which also he freely chose. The Scoresby family, from which he sprang
on the mother’s side, had for generations one or more distinguished physicians in
its ranks. His maternal grandfather. Dr. Thomas Scoresby, was one of the number,
having attained eminence in the profession before leaving England, which high
repute was sustained through the years of his practice in this country; and his
uncle, the late Dr. William F. Scoresby, though removed by death at the early age
of forty-four years, will long be remembered as one of the most brilliant among
his contemporaries in the profession. Bright and genial in youth, J. F. Scoresby
Eastgate disclosed excellent powers, kept abreast of his fellows in the various
branches of learning, and left the High School well equipped for a course in a
New England seminary, afterwards entering a school at Kingston, Pa. He
graduated in medicine from Columbia College, New York, March 12, 1880, and
under the training of his uncle. Dr. W. F. Scoresby, entered practice as the latter’s
successor, rapidly making favor with the public, and for a term of years enjoyed
a very large practice, commanding also honorable rank among members of the
profession. Dr. Eastgate had a large circle of personal friends, who with the public
generally, sincerely lament his shortened career, removing from the field of pro-
fessional and social business activity, one well fitted for eminent usefulness and
honor.

Dr. Eastgate had never married. Pie is survived by his devoted mother, an
affectionate aunt, Mrs. L. Scoresby Sherman, and other relatives.

598

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

OSCAR L. EASTMAN, a direct descendant of Roger Eastman, who was bom
in Wales, in i6ii, and settled in Massachusetts Bay Colony, in 1638, was born at
Ira, Cayuga County, N. Y., April i, 1851. After obtaining a public school education
he learned telegraphy and was an operator at the time the news of President
Lincoln’s assassination was flashed over the continent. February 21, 1871, he came
to Kingston and was engaged as postal clerk during the time Mr. Winter was
postmaster at Rondout. He later served in the same capacity for four years while
Mr. Barnes was deputy postmaster. He was then in the employ of the Wallkill
Valley R. R. for two years, and in 1882 his services were secured by S. D. Coyken-
dall, where he is still employed as general bookkeeper.

On September 2, 1874, Mr. Eastman married Kate Preston of Rondout and
they have three children, Fred H., Lizzie M., and Frank L. Mr. Eastman has been
a member of the Prudential Committee of the First Baptist Church for twenty-four
years; Trustee and Treasurer, fifteen years, and Deacon six years. He has served
as Treasurer of the Board of Education of Ulster Academy for seventeen years.

He is a member of the International Association of Office Men and has passed
all the chairs in Masonry. His father, Orresta Eastman, was a Baptist clergyman
and was born at Pompey, N. Y., December 16, 1819, and died at Walworth, N. Y.,
August 6, 1870. His third wife, Elizabeth Houghton, mother of our subject, was
born at Lincklaen, N. Y., April 27, 1823, and died January 31, 1888.

B. C. EATON, Merchant of Ellenville, was born there, November 2, 1865. He
received his education in the public and high schools of the village, and then
learned telegraphy ; this he followed for three years. In 1886 he engaged in the boot
and shoe business, in which he has since continued. Mr. Eaton has served the
village as Trustee for one term, but has refused further public office, as his business
requires his entire attention. He was married to Miss Anna Preston Bentley, and
to them has been born a daughter, Mildred Humphrey. He is a stanch Democrat
and prominently identified with local social and benevolent institutions.

WILLIAM H. ECKERT, cashier of the First National Bank of Saugerties, is a
native of Dutchess County, having been born in Milan, April 22, 1843. In 1852 the
family removed to Saugerties and in the schools of that place Mr. Eckert received
his education. After leaving school he taught for one year, and at nineteen years
of age entered the First National Bank of Saugerties in the capacity of clerk. lu
1887 he became a Director in the bank and in 1893 was elected its cashier. In 1866
he was joined in marriage with Sarah E. Blackwell of Saugerties, and two children
have been born to them, Anna, the wife of E. L. Seamon, and Harry W.

Mr. Eckert is one of Saugerties’s leading citizens and takes a deep interest in the
welfare of that village. Twenty years ago he was elected Village Treasurer and
has held the office continuously since that time. He has also been a member of
the Odd Fellows for forty-tv/o years.

REV. CHARLES G. ELLIS, son of Winfield S. Ellis and Franceanna Gerton
Ellis, was born in Newtown, Bucks County, Pa., September 23, 1865. After attend-

BIOGRAPHICAL.

599

ing the Newtown public schools, he was prepared for college in part by a private
tutor and partly at Doylestown Seminary, Doylestown, Pa. He graduated from
Lafayette College, Easton, Pa., in 1890, receiving the Degree of A. M. in 1893, in
which year he also graduated from Union Theological Seminary of New York. He
was a student in the Post-Graduate Department of the University of New York,
taking lectures in Philosophy and Comparative Religions from 1890 to 1893.

Mr. Ellis was ordained by the Presbytery of Philadelphia North, October, 1893,
and the same month was called to the pastorate of the First Presbyterian Church
of Northport, N. Y., which he served until November, 1901, when he resigned to
accept a call to the Rondout Presbyterian Church of Kingston, N. Y. He was
married to Miss Mary L. Brant, of Margaretville, N. Y., October ii, 1904.

LEVI ELMENDORF was born in the town of Olive, Ulster County, New York,
where he obtained his education. He was engaged in farming and lumbering until
his twenty-first year. In 1870 he established the general store at Brown’s Station,
which he at present conducts. In this connection he has also acted as Agent for the
U. & D. R. R. Co. for some eighteen years, and has served as postmaster under
Presidents Harrison, McKinley and Roosevelt. Socially, Mr. Elmendorf is a
member of No. 10 Lodge, F. & A. M., and in politics a stanch Republican.

He was married to Jorella Schriver, and they have one son, Frank, who is
associated with his father in business. Peter P. Elmendorf, father of our subject,
was engaged in farming and lumbering in Olive township for many years.

CLARENCE J. ELTING, of Highland, Ulster County, is a son of Ezekiel S.
Elting and Mary Eleanor (El ting) Elting. He was born at Highland, October 13,
i860, attended the local schools and has been engaged in farming and fruit raising.
His father, Ezekiel S. Elting, has for many years been prominently identified with
the Republican party. Among the official positions which he has held are Post-
master of New Paltz, Justice and Supervisor for the Town of Lloyd, and Justice
of Sessions for the County of Ulster. Clarence J. Elting is in direct descent
from Jan Elten (or Elting), who came to this country prior to 1663, and was
appointed by Governor Andross, one of the Justices at Kingston. From this pro-
genitor of the family in America, a stalwart line of descendants have lived in
Ulster County, and several have served in public offices of trust and responsibility
with honor to themselves and credit to the community.. Mr. Elting was married,
October 22, 1890, to Lottie, daughter of Nicholas Zimme!<man.

MAURICE W. ELTINGE is a native of New Paltz, Ulster County, and spent
his boyhood days attending the public schools and Academy of that place. He
taught school for a period of three years, and then entered the Scientific Depart-
ment in Cornell University, graduating in 1886, with the degree of B.S. He read
law in the office of the late Charles A. Fowler, one of Ulster County's dis-
tinguished attorneys, and in 1889 was admitted to the bar. He then served four
years as Clerk of the Surrogate’s Court, and has since been engaged in the practice
of law in Kingston. Mr. Eltinge is a member of Kingston Lodge No. 10, F. &

6oo

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

A. M. In politics he is a Republican. In 1891 he married Cornelia D., daughter of
Dr. Deyo, of Gardiner. They have one son, Nathaniel.

The father of our subject, Nathaniel Eltinge, was born in 1824, and died April
1905- He was married to Anna Maria Wurts. The names of both the Eltinge
and Wurts families figure prominently in Ulster County history.

PHILIP ELTING was born at Highland, Ulster County, January 22, 1864.
After attending the public schools and Fort Edward Institute, he entered the Law
Department of Cornell University and was admitted to the bar in November, 1890.
He has since been engaged in the practice of his profession in Kingston.

In 1902 and 1903 Mr. Elting served as Counsel to the County Board of Super-
visors, and is the present Corporation Counsel of Kingston. Socially, he is identified
with the Masonic Fraternity.

Mr. Elting was united in marriage to Miss Catharine Ridenour, daughter of C. P.
Ridenour of Kingston, N. Y., who was for a long time a partner in the furniture
business with John D. Sleight.

WILLIAM S. ELTINGE was born in Kingston, September 3, 1874. He grad-
uated from Columbia University of Pharmacy at New York in 1897, and is now
secretary and treasurer of the drug firm of Eltinge & Schoonmaker, which was
incorporated in 1903.

Mr. Eltinge is an active member of the Republican party in Ulster County and
has served as a member of the Board of Supervisors since January, 1903, being
re-elected in 1905. His father, John H. Eltinge, was born at Hurley in 1850. He
engaged in the drug business and was for many years a prominent citizen of
Kingston. He married Sarah, daughter of Richard and Jane (Crispell) Lounsbery
of Marbletown, and three sons were born to them, William S., Richard L. and
Henry D. Mr. Eltinge died February 3, 1904.

The Eltinges of Hurley are descended from Cornelius Eltinge, who came there
from New Paltz about the time of the Revolutionary War. He married Blandina
Elmendorf, and his son, Solomon, was the great-grandfather of our subject.

MAJOR JAMES HERVEY EVERETT, who for the past five years has been
President of the Kingston Board of Trade, has led a life of unusual activity and a
sketch of his career will be read with interest. Throughout the Major’s life two
traits of character stand out conspicuously, decision and energy.

Major Everett was born in Bath, Steuben County, N. Y., February ii, 1837. His
father graduated at Dartmouth College in the class of 1813, was licensed to preach
in 1815, and from that time on for more than fifty years, was engaged in the work
of the ministry in western New York. He had three sons by his second wife. Major
Everett being the youngest. All these sons served as captains in the Union Army
during the Civil War, up to its close, when they were honorably discharged. Their
grandfathers on both sides had been Revolutionary soldiers, and their first ancestor
in this country, one of the founders of Dedham, Mass., in 1635, is said to have
been a soldier in the Low Countries.

BIOGRAPHICAL.

6oi

At the age of fifteen Major Everett left home and went to reside with his
sister, Mrs. A. H. Hayes, at Durham, N. Y. Here he acquired his first business
experience, working in the shop and store of his brother-in-law, who was engaged in
the stove and tinware business. He remained with Mr. Hayes eight years, with the
exception of one year at school, and then bought out the business which he success-
fully conducted until President Lincoln’s call for 300,000 volunteers caused him to
offer his services. He was commissioned by the Governor to enlist the quota of his
town, and within a week had the full number, twenty-five men enrolled, and with
them reported at the camp at Kingston, where the 120th Regiment was forming.
Within a week Major Everett was mustered in as Second Lieutenant of Company
K, and with the regiment, embarked for the front. The history of this regiment is
well known to the citizens of Ulster and Greene Counties, and the Sharpe monu-
ment, on the First Dutch Church grounds, in Kingston, will perpetuate it. At
the battle of Gettysburg, Major, then Lieutenant Everett, was slightly wounded
and the Captain of his company was killed on the field; Lieutenant Everett was
promoted to fill the vacancy. In front of Petersburg he was again wounded, but
had the good fortune to recover in time to be in command of his company at the
surrender of General Lee. He was mustered out with the regiment at Kingston
June 3, 1865, and received the commission of Brevet Major, New York Volunteers,
for gallant and meritorious conduct.

Returning to Durham, he resumed his former business and after a few months
sold out. In 1866 he, and his brother-in-law, settled in Kingston and, under the
firm name of Hayes and Everett, were for two years engaged in the stove and
tinware business on PYont street. In 1869 he became a member of the firm
of Spore and Everett, wholesale dealers in flour and grain, North Front street.
Shortly thereafter J. L. Dewitt took the place of Mr. Spore and was in turn bought
out by Major Everett, who continued the business alone for a time, but afterward
formed a partnership with T. H. & J. H. Tremper, at Rondout, under the firm
name of Tremper, Everett & Co., who carried on the business for two years, when
the firm was dissolved, Major Everett continuing the business of the two stores
alone. In 1873 Joseph C. Treadwell was admitted to partnership and under the
name of Everett & Treadwell the business was vigorously pushed. In 1890 the firm
bought a lot on Broadway, adjoining the West Shore Railroad and erected the
substantial four-story brick building, and the additional warehouses now occupied
by them. Here they established an extensive wholesale grocery business, and still
continued their flour, feed and grain business on North Front street. In 1899 Mr.
Treadwell died, and in 1903 the business was incorporated under the name of
Everett & Treadwell Company, James H. Everett, President.

For forty years Major Everett has been identified with every project that has
had for its object the welfare and prosperit}'- of Kingston and Ulster County. He
has given both time and money to public improvements of all kinds and has been
a leader in insuring the proper observance of Memorial Day in this city. In 1879
the war veterans of this vicinity organized a post of the Grand Ar:ny of the
Republic, and elected Major Everett commander.

After Company M, of this city, enlisted in the war with Spain citizens of Kingston

602

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

organized a Soldiers’ Aid Society and elected Major Everett president, and under
his decisive and energetic management funds were raised and used in promoting the
comfort of Company M, and in feeding such regiments as passed through the city.

He has always taken an active interest in politics. He is an earnest Republican
and has served his party as faithfully as he has his country. He has been frequently
nominated for office. In 1884 he accepted the Republican nomination for County
Treasurer, and although not elected, his opponent won by a very small vote. In
1889 he was elected a member of the Legislature and served his term. In 1893 he
was nominated for Mayor, to fill a vacancy, the regular nominee having withdrawn.
His opponent was declared elected by a majority of only ten, and it is only fair to
state that there was some question as to the correctness of the votes counted.

In 1875 Major Everett married Miss Benson. Their only child, Benson, entered
Yale University at the age of seventeen, and two years later, in the summer of
1899, while at home, he and Mr. Treadwell’s son were drowned in the Esopus
Creek.

Despite the strenuous life he has led Major Everett is today, at the age of
seventy, strong and vigorous. He still actively superintends the business of the
large wholesale houses, of which he is at the head, and also finds time to devote to
affairs of public interest. As president of the Board of Trade he takes an active
interest in the commercial and manufacturing prosperity of Kingston, and does all
in his power to promote the advancement and welfare of the city in which he has
spent the better part of his life.

BENJAMIN F. FELLOWS, of Saugerties, was born in England in 1866. At
the age of four years he came to America with his parents, who located in Sauger-
ties. After attending the public schools, he entered the employ of the Sheffield
Paper Company, and subsequently the Saugerties Manufacturing Company, as
envelope maker, remaining in all with the two concerns some twenty years, or
until 1900, when in connection with Mr. J. G. Finger he established the Standard
Shoe Company, of which he is now proprietor, retailing boots and shoes and
gent’s furnishings. He is also associated with Prof. J. H. Rogers under the firm
name of Rogers & Fellows in the sale of pianos.

Mr, Fellows is identified with the Masonic Fraternity and an honorary member
of the Standard Hose Company. For many years he has been chorister of the
Saugerties M. E. Church. Mr. Fellows was united in marriage to Henrietta
Finger, daughter of Captain Finger, and they have one daughter, Kathryn.

DANIEL N. FINGER, general agent of the Saugerties & New York Steamboat
Company of Saugerties, was born in that village September 12, 1863. After com-
pleting a course in the Saugerties Academy, he entered the employ of one of the
leading dry-goods houses in the village, acting as head-clerk and buyer. He was
appointed to his present position in 1884, which he still holds, having gained the
confidence and respect of his employers by his integrity and genial manner. In
any enterprise, which will promote the welfare of the village, he is one of the
leading factors. In connection with his other business, he is, also, a successful

BIOGRAPHICAL. 603

real estate dealer. Starting early in life with energy and a purpose, he bids fair
to become one of the leading and active business men of the town.

In 1883, he was united in marriage with Jennie C. Fiero of Saugerties. Two
children have been born to them, Lilabel McClure and Harry Maxwell. Mr.
Finger is an exempt fireman and an honorary member of the Snyder Hose Com-
pany, a member of the Confidence Lodge No. 51, I. O. O. F., and the Saugerties
Lodge of Eagles.

REV. PAUL ROGERS FISH, rector of the Church of the Holy Spirit, Kings-
ton, was born in Brooklyn, N. Y., in 1872. His preliminary education was obtained
at private schools and St. Stephen’s College, Annandale, N. Y. In 1894 he
entered the General Theological Seminary in New York City, and was ordained as
deacon and priest in 1897 by Bishop Nicholson. He served successively at St.
Clement’s, New York, Holy Cross, Kingston, St. Mark’s, Springfield, Vt, and in
1904 he returned to Kingston to take up his present work.

In 1899 Mr. Fish was united in marriage to Addie R. Fredericks of Brooklyn and
they have two sons. Mr. Fish is identified v/ith the Masonic Order; is a member
of the New York Catholic Clerical Club and Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity. He
is a son of James and Isabella (Rogers) Fish of Brooklyn, N. Y.

HARRY HARDWICKE FLEMMING was born in Rondout, New York,
February 13, 1874. After graduating from the Ulster Academy, in 1891, he took
up the study of law, finishing his studies at the Albany Law School in 1902, when
he was admitted to practice as Attorney and Counselor-at-Law. He is a member of
the New Yol-k State Bar Association.

Mr. Flemming was united in marriage to Harriet N. Sherwood, April 20, 1904.
They have one son, Arthur Sherwood Flemming. Our subject is a son of Robert
W. and Elizabeth Flemming, also natives of Ulster County.

DR. ANDREW GREEN FOORD, who has recently erected on the northern
slope of the Shawangunk Mountains several very substantial and elaborate fire-
proof stone structures to serve as a Sanitarium and rest cure, is a native of
Brooklyn, N. Y. He is a graduate of the Long Island College Hospital, Class of ’97,
and has had an extensive hospital experience. Before definitely settling in Ulster
County in 1905, he had a large practice in New York City, and spent his summers
on the farm between Kerhonkson and Wawarsing, which he acquired in 1902.
Preparatory to the construction of his Sanitarium, he purchased some eleven hun-
dred acres of land surrounding the location selected, thus securing a most advan-
tageous site, embracing a most wonderful view of rugged mountain and peaceful
valley scenery, and gaining possession of a great natural park secure against all
intrusion. Excellent water, skilled assistants, and absolute quiet make “Non-
kanawha” — i. e., by the side of the stream — a Mecca for overworked people, where
they can combine all the comforts of a modern city home with the restfulness of the
primeval forest.

6o4

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

JACOB FORST, whose wholesale meat establishment is among Kingston’s
leading industries, was born in Germany in 1854. In 1872 he came to America,
locating at Rondout, where for seventeen years he was a commission merchant,
handling the product of Armour & Co. Since 1901 he has dressed his own beef,
butchering over 2,500 head of cattle annually, and enjoys an extensive trade
throughout the city and county.

Mr. Forst is a sterling Democrat. He served two years as Alderman during Dr.
Kennedy’s regime and has been Almshouse Commissioner for the past nine years.
He is a member of the Knights of Pythias, Elks, Knights and Ladies of Honor,
Rondout Mannerchor and the German Sick and Aid Society. He married Jacobina
Reiss, also of Germany, and they have six children. The eldest son is practicing
law in New York, and two younger sons are associated with their father in
business.

HON. JAMES CHRISTIE FORSYTH, son of John and Jane (Currie) Forsyth,
was born in Newburg, N. Y., March 6, 1819. He obtained his education at Rutgers
and Union Colleges, graduating from the latter institution in 1835. He began the
study of law in the office of A. C. Nivin at Monticello, N. Y., was admitted to the
bar in 1838, and engaged in the practice of his profession in the office of Jbdge
Gabriel Ludlum of Kingston, later forming a partnership with the Hon. James O.
Linderman, His superior abilities as a jurist led to his nomination and election in
1841 as Judge of Ulster County. Impartial and conscientious in his decisions, able
and upright in his official actions, his judicial career had the commendation of both
political parties. In 1846 he was a member of the Constitutional Convention, and
was a candidate for Secretary of State in 1851, but met defeat with the rest of his
party.

Judge Forsyth was united in marriage June 26, 1839, to Miss Mary, daughter of
Severyn and Catherine (Hasbrouck) Bruyn, who died November 5, 1879. They had
the following children : Mary Isabella, Katherine Bruyn, Petronella Bruyn, Severyn
Bruyn, Jane Currie and John.

John Forsyth, senior member of the book and stationery firm of Forsyth &
Davis, was born in Kingston, N. Y., in 1850, and received his education in private
schools. In 1877 he embarked in his present business, in which he has been eminently
successful, his establishment soon becoming the resort of the literary people of this
community. In 1903 he purchased the business of the Bruyn Paper Co., succeeding
the late James V. Bruyn. Mr. Forsyth is a member of the Sons of the American
Revolution, the Kingston Club, and for many years has been prominently identified
with the First Reformed Church. In June, 1881, he was united in marriage to Miss
Mary L. Tomlinson of Bridgeport, Conn.

Severyn Bruyn Forsyth, elder son of James C. and Mary (Bruyn) Forsyth,
was born in Kingston, December 6, 1846. He attended the Academy of his
native city and prepared for college at a boarding-school in Newport, R. I. He
graduated from Princeton College in 1867, studied law at the Columbia College
Law School, and in 1880 received the degree of Master of Arts from Princeton.
Mr. Forsyth was a member of the Delta Phi Fraternity, the American Whig

BIOGRAPHICAL.

60s

Society, the Sons of the American Revolution, and was President of the Ulster
County branch of the State Charities Aid Society. For twenty-five years he was a
trustee of the Industrial Home for Children and was deeply interested in its work.
His death occurred February 13, 1902.

EVERETT FOWLER, Attorney, of Kingston, is a son of the late Hon. Charles
A. Fowler, who attained prominence in Ulster County as an attorney, and
achieved distinction in the field of politics.

Charles A. Fowler was born May 10, 1832, at Cold Spring, Putnam County,
N. Y. His ancestors were of English birth, who came to America in the early
part of the seventeenth century and .settled at New Haven, Conn. They later
located in Westchester County, N. Y., where many of their descendants still live.

Charles Fowler received his elementary education from private tutors and at the
American Seminary in Dutchess County, and at the age of sixteen he entered Yale.
After leaving college, he took up the study of law, under the Hon. Azor Tabor, of
Albany, and also attended a course of lectures at the Albany Law School. He
was a member of the first class that graduated from that institution, and at the
time of his death was the oldest living graduate of the school. He was President
of the Alumni Association in 1885. He was admitted to the Bar at Albany on
May 9, 1853, and soon thereafter opened an office in Chicago, where he remained in
practice until 1859. He then located in New York City and entered into a law
practice with Hon. Alfred Conklin, who for many years was Judge of the United
States Court, of the Northern District.

In 1864, he came to Ulster County and opened an office in Ellenville, where he
continued in practice until 1879. While there, in the year 1867, he was elected
Surrogate of Ulster County, on the Democratic ticket.

In 1879, he was elected to the State Senate for the Fourteenth District, and while
holding that office, introduced and secured the passage of many important bills. In
1880 he was appointed a member of a special committee, to investigate State Lunatic
Asylums. Mr. Fowler received the nomination for the Assembly in 1881, but with
his party met defeat. He was married, on September 6, 1853, to Hannah M. Warren,
daughter of Hon. Cornelius Warren, of Putnam County, and of the four sons born
to them, two are now living; Cornelius W. and Everett, In the death of Mr.
Fowler, which occurred at Kingston, on February 7, 1896, the community lost an
upright and an honorable citizen and an able and courageous jurist.

Everett Fowler was born in New York City, in 1861, and in the schools of that
city and at Union College, received his education, graduating from the latter institu-
tion with the Class of ’85. He took up the study of law in his father’s office, and
was admitted to the Bar in 1887. He remained with his father in practice and
subsequently became a partner, the firm being known as C. A. & E. Fowler.

Mr. Fowler has for years been prominently identified with the Democratic party
and is one of the influential members of that organization in the county. He has
held the office of County Deputy Treasurer and for nine years has been Clerk of
the County Board of Supervisors. He is a director in the Kingston National Bank,
a trustee of the Kingston Savings Bank and Vice-President of Wiltwyck Cemetery
Association.

6o6

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

Among many fraternal and social organizations of which he is a member, may be
mentioned the following: Kingston, F. & A. M,, Mystic Shrine, Knights Templar,
and the B. P. O. E., the Kingston and Twaalfskill Clubs; the New York Athletic
Club; the New York Army and Navy Club; the New York Democratic Club, and
the Albany Club. He has long been a member of Company M, loth N. Y. State
Militia, of which he is now Captain.

JOSEPH M. FOWLER, Attorney, of Kingston, who represents the First As-
sembly District in the New York Legislature, was born at Walden, Orange County,
New York, July 15, 1873, and is the son of Nicholas Jansen and Elizabeth (Mills-
paugh) Fowler. He received his education at the New Paltz Normal School,
Rutgers College, and the Academic and Law Departments of Cornell University.
He was admitted to the Bar in 1897, and has since practiced law in Kingston, with
the exception of the year 1898, when at the beginning of the Spanish War he en-
listed in Company M, First N. Y. Volunteer Infantry, serving as Corporal, and
being promoted during service to the office of Second Lieutenant.

Mr. Fowler is a member of the Masonic Blue Lodge, Cypress Temple of
Shriners and the United Order of American Mechanics ; also the Cornell University
Club of New York, the Army and Navy Club of New York, the Kingston and
Albany Clubs, and Wiltwyck Hose. In 1905 he was elected member of the Assembly
on the Republican ticket by a handsome majority, and re-elected in 1906. Mr.
Fowler married Catharine Winnie Frear of Kingston in 1902.

JARED H. FRANCISCO, of Kingston, was born in Andes, Delaware County,
New York, August 24, 1837. He obtained his education at the schools of his native
place and was then engaged in the lumber business with Albert Hitt until the Civil
War broke out, when he enlisted in Company G, New York Volunteers, serving
three years in defence of his country. He was then employed for some three years
by Hopp Dean as foreman of his lumber business in Arkville. In 1868 Mr. Fran-
cisco entered the employ of what is now the U. & D. R. R. Company, with whom
he remained nearly thirty-eight years, rising from a humble position to that of
Assistant Roadmaster. In 1905 he accepted the position of Superintendent of the
Grand Hotel in the Catskills.

Mr. Francisco is a member of No. 343 Lodge, F. & A. M., and of the G. A. R.
In 1861 he was united in marriage to Miss Adelia Fuller. Their son, John A.,
holds the position of trainmaster on the U. & D. R. R.

JOHN D. FRATSHER, County Clerk of Ulster County, is a native of Saugerties,
where he received his early educational training and where he now resides. In
1885 he was appointed a page in the State Assembly at Albany, and the four years
following he served as clerk of the Sessions. He is a member of Ulster Lodge,
No. 193, F. & A. M., of Saugerties, and the R. A. Snyder Hose Company, of
which he has for many years served as Secretary. He is also a member of the
Kingston, Rondout and Saugerties Clubs. His marriage lo Jessie F., a daughter

BIOGRAPHICAL. 607

of Abram J. Myer, of Saugerties, took place on December ii, 1889. Mrs.
Fratsher departed this life May 15, 1905.

Mr. Fratsher is a man of the highest commercial and official integrity, and his
worth to the community has more than once been indicated by the voice and vote
of the people in his town and county. He has been elected Supervisor of the town
five times, four years of which he served as Chairman of the Board, being
the first to hold that office from the town of Saugerties. He was nominated
and elected to the office of County Clerk in 1900, and his efficiency was such that
he was re-elected to the office in 1903, and again in 1906 he received the unanimous
nomination and election to the same office.

Mr. Fratsher is a most faithful and valuable official and has inaugurated many
important improvements in the County Clerk’s office, notably the re-indexing of
deeds and mortgages to date.

EMERY FREER, general merchant of Esopus, N. Y., was born in that town
May 5, 1846. He attended the local schools and was engaged in clerking and
keeping books up to the time that he established business for himself in 1885. He
is a Trustee of the U. C. Savings Institution. A descendant of one of the original
(French Huguenots) Patentees of Ulster County, Mr. Freer has fully sustained
the reputation borne by the Freer family from the founder down to the present
generation, all worthy citizens, who have borne their share in business and public
affairs. Emery Freer married Matilda Aims. They have a family of six children,
viz., Tillie, Frederick, married to Bella Ackerman, Grace, Hasbrouck, Hattie and
Viya.

WATSON MARTHIS FREER, son of Jacob Roosa and Phoebe Jane (Towns-
end) Freer, was born in St. Remy, Ulster County, in 1863. He obtained his educa-
tion at the public schools and Kingston Academy, and for a period of about
three years earned his livelihood by serving his customers with the daily press. In
1883 he decided to go West, and located in the City of Detroit, Mich., where he
engaged in the manufacture of freight cars, which he continued until 1899, achieving
an unusual degree of success.

In 1900 Mr. Freer returned to his native county and now resides on his country
estate some two miles north of Kingston. Mr. Freer was united in marriage to
Miss Anna Hecker, daughter of Col. Hecker of Detroit. They have one child,
Louise Hecker Freer.

JOHN F. FREITAG, proprietor of the Rip Van Winkle House in the Catskills,
is the well-known caterer of “The Tuxedo,” Madison avenue and 59th street,
New York. He has traveled extensively in France, Italy, Germany, Austria and
England, and speaks several languages. The Rip Van Winkle House is one mile
from the depot at Pine Hill, beautifully situated on the line of the Ulster and
Delaware Railroad, overlooking Big Indian Valley. The locality is noted for
cool, bracing atmosphere and is absolutely free from malaria and mosquitoes.

The house is three stories in height, and has accommodation for one hundred

6o8

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

and seventy-five guests. A piazza ten feet wide almost surrounds the building
and open fireplaces are located in hall and parlor. Dancing pavilion, bowling
alley, billiard room, card room and cafe are located in separate buildings on the
grounds. It is an ideal spot for the summer tourist and is well patronized by New
York people and those desiring a delightful summer home.

JOSEPH FRESTON, M. D., of Milton, N. Y., was born at Creek Locks, Ulster
County, May 19, 1866. He attended the public school and the Ulster Academy
of Rondout and graduated from the Medical College of Baltimore, Class of ’86. He
later took a post-graduate course in the New York College of Physicians and
Surgeons in the treatment of the eye, ear, nose and throat. He commenced
practice in 1886, in Kerhonkson, and shortly thereafter went to Honduras, Central
America, as surgeon and physician to the largest mining company in that country.
He returned in a short time and settled in Kingston, and in 1894, permanently
located in Milton. Dr. Freston took a second post-graduate course at the Poly-
technic Institute, New York City, two years ago. He is a member of the Ulster
County Medical Society, the Newburgh Bay Medical Society and an honorary
member of the Dutchess County Medical Society. His family consists of wife,
formerly Miss C. M. Saulpaugh of Rondout, and two children, Julian and Javett.

Dr. Freston’s father, John Freston of Creek Locks, (retired), was for over
forty years Superintendent of the Cement Works there.

LUTHER H. FROST, Secretary and General Manager of the Frost and Sons
Paper Company of Napanoch, was born in New Hampshire. He is a graduate of
the Wesleyan University of Middletown, Conn., and succeeded his father, the
late Lorenzo L. Frost, in the management of their important industry, upon the
death of the latter, which occurred May 10, 1906.

Lorenzo L. Frost was of Scotch, English and French Huguenot blood, his
ancestors having settled almost exclusively in New Hampshire and Massachusetts.
Several of them took part in the American Revolution and his grandfather in the
war of 1812. Mr. Frost was born in Millbury, Mass., educated in the public
schools and the Academy at Franklin Falls, N. H., and in the Boscawen Academy
at Boscawen, N. H. He was married October 31, 1867, to Harris L. Hayward of
Concord, N. H. Mr. Frost had a long and active business career, continuing to
the date of his death, as a practical paper manufacturer. He began the same as a
mere boy, working under his father, Luther T. Frost, at the Winisogee Paper
Company mills at Franklin Falls, N. H., in the early days of the industry, long
before that company was absorbed by the International Paper Company. He
rapidly advanced in his chosen occupation, and while still little more than a youth
was placed in charge of one of their mills, while his father operated another.
With the exception of one year, he continued at Franklin Falls as Superintendent
for seventeen years. In 1890 he became part owner and manager of the Sunapee
Paper Company at Sunapee, N. H., and after completing the plant, remained there
until 1894, when he sold his interests. Then, after a few months as manager of
the Frontenac Paper Company at Dexter, N. Y., he became part owner and

BIOGRAPHICAL.

609

manager of the Racquette River Paper Company, of Potsdam, N. Y., remaining
there until the fall of 1901, when the entire property was purchased by the present
owner. Mr. Frost and his sons then organized the L. L. Frost Paper Company and
built a mill at Norwood, St. Lawrence County, N. Y., which on January 4, 1904,
was completely destroyed by fire. He immediately constructed of steel and con-
crete what is probably one of the model news paper mills of the United States. In
August, 1905, that property was sold to Northern New York capitalists, and Mr.
Frost immediately, in company with his sons, incorporated the Frost and Sons
Paper Company, and purchased property at Napanoch, Ulster County. Two mills
are now in operation, manufacturing jute tissue paper.

ISAIAH FULLER, whose success achieved is expressed briefly here, began as
a farm boy and is now at the head of one of the largest shirt factories in New
York State. Mr. Fuller was born in Gallway, Saratoga County, in 1846, and is a
son of James Fuller, who at one time was a partner of Judge Betts of Kingston.
Mr. Fuller attended the schools at Ft. Edward and Gloversville and then spent a
year on his father’s farm. He was appointed Warden of Clinton Prison by Super-
intendent of Prisons Pillsbury, and served under the regime of Governors Robin-
son, Cornell, Cleveland and Hill. He was twice elected to the Assembly and was
one of the two youngest men at that time in the State Legislature.

In 1891 Mr. Fuller located in Kingston as a manufacturer of shirts and his
business has developed from an output of 60 dozen finished shirts per day to 200
dozen per day, giving employment to some three hundred hands. Mr. Fuller has
been twice married. His son, James S. Fuller, who is associated with him in
business, is also a native of Gallway and was born in 1875. He obtained his educa-
tion at St. Johns Military Academy, Manlius, N. Y. He married Alice E. Traver
of Hudson, N. Y.

WILLIAM L. FULLER, Postmaster of Ellenville, N. Y., is a son of Elam and
Ruth (Fowler) Fuller. He was born in Ellenville in 1861, and after completing
his preliminary education at the public schools, learned the printer’s trade in the
job office of Hon. Thomas E. Benedict, with whom he remained eight years. He
then engaged in farming and also conducted an ice and milk business, in which he
is still actively interested with his brother, Albert E.

Mr. Fuller has for many years been an active member of the Republican party.
He served one term as Town Collector, and ten years as Chairman of the Repub-
lican Town Committee. He was appointed Postmaster, May 15, 1904, by President
Roosevelt, Mr. Fuller married Miss Sarah L. Blancham and one son, Edwin B.,
has been born to them. Elam Fuller, father of our subject, was a highly respected
citizen of Ellenville, where he erected many substantial structures, among them
the M. E. Church and the Glass Factory.

FREDERICK GALLAGHER was born in the City of Kingston, MarclT'3 1854.
He received his education in the public schools, after which he entered the employ
of his father, who for many years conducted a foundry and sheet iron business in

6io

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

Kingston. He assisted his father in the management of the business until the
death of the latter in 1882, when he became possessed of the property. In politics
Mr. Gallagher is a Democrat and has served one term in the Civil Service Com-
mission.

He was married in 1876 to Cornelia S. Bogart, whose ancestors were among the
early settlers in Ulster. Two children have been born to them, John B. and Mary
Augustine. His father was born in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., in 1805, located in
Kingston in 1826. His wife, Augustine Guigou Gallagher, was a native of Mar-
seilles, France, who when a child, came with her parents to America and settled
at Pine Hill, where Mr. Guigou conducted a tannery.

WALTER G. GEROLDSEK was born in Livingston, Columbia County, N.
Y., in 1861, and obtained his education in the schools of his native place. In 1888
he came to Pine Hill and entered the employ of T. B. Floyd & Co., remaining there
four years. In 1893 accepted the position of store manager for the National
Chair Company, in Chichestei, where he continued until 1897, when he established
his present general store in Pine Hill.

Mr. Geroldsek is identified with the Masonic Fraternity and in politics a
Democrat. He is at present a member of the Ulster County Board of Supervisors.
In 1894 he was united in marriage to Miss Kate L. Hayes. They have three
children, Walter Floyd, John Lewis and Frances Adelia.

DAVID GILL, JR., of Kingston, who has been prominent in the business life
of Ulster for many years, was born in Rondout, June 26, 1859. He attended the
public schools here and graduated from the private school known as the Star
Institute. He then entered the employ of the F. O. Norton Cement Company, with
whom he remained a number of years as shipper and traveling salesman. In 1889
he engaged in busness for himself as a jobber in Mason’s Building Materials, and in
spite of many obstacles Mr. Gill’s business has steadily grown, until today it far
exceeds any in the same line in this section of the State.

Mr, Gill is a man of unusual energy and business acumen and his success is due
entirely to his own efforts. He is a member of Kingston Lodge, I. O. O. F., and the
Olficial Board of St. James Methodist Church. In 1888 he married Miss Emma
Stewart of Old Hurley. They have six children, Seth C., Isabella C., Earl S.,
Ruth E., Dorothy L, and Helena C. David Gill, Sr., father of our subject, has
been a resident of Kingston since 1848.

WALTER N. GILL, Attorney and Counsellor-at-Law, was born in Kingston,
January 23, 1861. After finishing his studies at the Kingston Academy he read law
in the office of the late E. S. Wood and was admitted to the bar in 1881.

Politically, Mr. Gill is a Republican and has been actively identified with the
affairs of his party since 1886, when he was elected a member of the Board
of Supervisors. In 1889 he was appointed Postmaster of Rondout, serving until
1894. He was Corporation Counsel of the City of Kingston in i9oo-’oi, and is at
present School Trustee and a member of the Board of Education. Mr. Gill is

BIOGRAPHICAL.

6ii

a member of the Knights of Pythias and the I. O. O. F. and Encampment. He
is also a life member of the Kingston City Hospital Association, and is identified
with the Rondout Club and the Rondout Yacht Club. He was united in marriage
to Maggie Van Keuren, and they have three children. He is a son of David
Gill, Sr.

W. SCOTT GILLESPIE was born in Marbletown, Ulster County, in 1844. In
1862 he came to Kingston and engaged as clerk in the grocery store of Samuel
Frame, with whom he remained five years. He was then employed in the County
Clerk’s office for a year, when he returned to the grocery business, spending two
years in the employ of John C. Brodhead. The firm of Oliver & Gillespie was
then established, to be succeeded in about a year by DeWitt & Gillespie, which
partnership continued about twenty-three years, or until 1894, Mr. Gillespie con-
ducting the business alone since that time.

Mr. Gillespie has been prominently identified with public affairs in Kingston for
many years. In 1884 he was appointed Postmaster by President Cleveland, holding
the office until 1888. He has served six years as Alderman of the Ninth Ward,
and since 1888 has been a member of the Board of Education. Mr. Gillespie has
been twice married, his first wife being Miss Julia A. Schreiver, by whom he had
one daughter. In 1880 Mr. Gillespie was united in marriage to Miss Ida Winne of
Kingston.

HOWARD GILLESPY of Saugerties, N. Y. The genealogy of the Gillespy
(formerly spelled Gillespie) family is traced back to John Gillespie, who was born
in the North of Scotland, and whose descendants came at a very early day to this
country, a portion of them settling in New Windsor, N. Y., near the Connecticut
State line, afterwards removing to Fishkill, where they were among the earliest
settlers of Dutchess County, Howard Gillespy was born in Saugerties December 2,
1854. He is a son of Peter Myers Gillespy, who for thirty years was cashier of the
First National Bank and who is still living, retired. Howard graduated from
Rutgers College, Class of ’75, with degree of B. A., and three years later took
the degree of A. M. After completing his education, he entered the First
National Bank, and remained there until 1882, when he became the Treasurer of the
Saugerties Blank Book Company, and later became its Manager. In 1890 this
company was incorporated under the title of the Sheffield Manufacturing Com-
pany, and Mr. Gillespy was elected its Secretary. From that time to the present,
the responsible duties of the entire establishment have devolvd upon him. It is the
largest plant of its kind in the country, and has at times employed upwards of
seven hundred hands. The company manufacture blank books, envelopes, tablets,
etc. Mr. Gillespy was married July 30, 1879, to Miss Mary Elizabeth Orr Pidgeon.
Both Mr. and Mrs. Gillespy are members of the Reformed Dutch Church, in which
Mr. Gillespy as a member of the Consistory has served as Deacon and Treasurer.

GLENERIE HOTEL, located on a spur of the Catskills, one thousand feet
above tidewater, near Mount Marion station, is one of the thriving mountain

6i2

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

hotels of Ulster County. This hotel, established by Peter Whittaker thirty years
ago, was purchased by Christian Meyer, its present proprietor, in 1898. The hotel
buildings standing on an eminence, amid a pine and oak forest, command an
extensive view of mountains and river, and accommodates about sixty guests.

Mr. Meyer is an experienced hotel manager and his guests are served with the
best of viands. His farm of ninety acres supplies an abundance of fresh vegetables,
fruits, poultry and dairy products.

PHILIP GOLDRICK, of the town of Saugerties, is one of the foremost brick
manufacturers in the Hudson Valley. Seven years ago Mr. Goldrick purchased
the property of Cullen & Miller, and has since greatly improved and enlarged
the plant. He employes from one hundred to one hundred and fifty hands and his
output, which reaches ten to fifteen million brick per year, is transported to
market on his two barges. Among the more important improvements inaugurated
by Mr. Goldrick is an automatic railroad conveying the clay from the pits to the
yards. While Mr. Goldrick has not been a resident of Ulster many years, he is
not new in the brick business, having conducted extensive yards in Haverstraw,
from 1882 until 1905. He is a member of the National Brick Makers Society.

He married Miss Adelia Brennan and their family consists of the following
children — Philip R., bookkeeper and paymaster for the company, Thomas F.,
John J., Martha L. and Rose L. Mr. Goldrick and family occupy his handsome
and commodious residence on the banks of the Hudson, about three miles above
the City of Kingston.

H. S. GORDON, a wealthy farmer and stock breeder, with an estate of some
twelve hundred acres, near Wawarsing, acquired by purchasing and consolidating
the Brodhead, Beard, Van Wagonen, Burger and Flugkeiger farms, has perfected
and systematized stock breeding and dairying to such an extent that his
establishment has become noted throughout the country. He gives the most careful
attention to many details which heretofore have not been considered of especial
importance by the average farmer and stock raiser, the ventilation of his spacious
stables and their sanitation; the testing of milk from each cow daily by the
celebrated Babcock test; sterilized clothing for milkers; the King system of air
chambers, which keeps pure air in constant circulation; flowing fountains within
easy reach of the cattle; perfect record of the product of each animal daily, are
only a few special features, but are important in showing the care exercised and
ingenuity displayed, which has brought this model farm and its productions to
their present high state of proficiency.

Mr. Gordon’s especial pride is a herd of over one hundred registered Holsteins,
ranging in value from three hundred to fifteen hundred dollars each. He also has
some very fine blooded horses, notably, Claud M., with a record of 2.2IJ4* He
has built a one-half mile circular race track upon his estate, which is kept in first-
class condition for speeding and training purposes. One of the notable features of
this estate is the Colonial home. The old stone house has been systematically
enlarged into a spacious mansion, retaining throughout its old Colonial style of

BIOGRAPHICAL.

613

architecture, and fitted with modern improvements, within which its owner and
his family enjoy all the comforts of the city together with the advantages of the
country life. Mr. Gordon is a graduate of Yale, Class of ’93. His wife was Miss
Mary Kelley of Grand Rapids, Mich,

NICHOLAS RIGHTER GRAHAM was one of fifteen children born to Alex-
ander McClintock and Dorothy Righter in Homer, Cortlandt County, N. Y.,
April 24, 1818. On the paternal side he was descended from old Scottish houses;
ion the maternal, from German and English stock. Love of learning came as an
inheritance to the Scottish father, who, although having as a younger son, brought
little to America, managed to secure an academic education for seven boys. Con-
sequently, young Graham was educated at the Academy of his native town, as
were a number of New York’s distinguished sons. Afterwards removing to Jeffer-
son, Chemung County, he took up the study of law in the office of Edward Quinn,
an Irish barrister and intimate of Charles O’Connor’s famil}^ U. S. Senator
Kernan was equipped for law in the same office, also, Mr. Graham’s brother-in-
law, G. N. Swezy of California, who was a law partner of Stephen J. Field.

Nicholas R. Graham married, in 1844, Julia A. Whitney, a woman of the best
New England type, whose strong mentality and personal graces are recognized
to-day, although in her eighty-fifth year. She resides in Evanston, Illinois. They
came to Ellenville, N. Y., as “Lawyer” and Mrs. Graham in 1847, and during their
residence there, he was regarded as the leading attorney of that part of the
county. In the fall of 1855 he was elected Judge of the county. Although having
been a Democrat, yet he had attached himself to the “Know Nothing” cause,
believing in America for Americans, whether native or adopted, who were qualified
by intelligence to vote.

Residing in Kingston, N. Y., at the outbreak of the Civil War, Judge Graham
was among those citizens who, on the i8th of April, 1861, assembled at the Court
House to take measures to furnish Ulster County’s quota of troops for the defense
of the Union. Chosen vice-president of the meeting, he spoke of his attachment
to the flag and said: “There were times v/hen bickerings and party dissensions
might arise, but treason to the flag of the country he would repel.” On this same
historic spot, the Court House, where in 1777 Gov. Clinton sent Cadwallader
Colden to the Kingston jail for treason, Judge Graham called together a number
of patriotic citizens and made the motion which was, to deal summarily with loud-
mouthed traitors, then termed “copperheads.” This resolve was speedily put into
action and those who thought they were privileged to insult the flag, found them-
selves securely lodged in Fort Lafayette.

In 1862, Judge Graham aided in recruiting the “Von Beck Rifles” with the inten-
tion of becoming Major of the regiment. The companies raised were, however,
consolidated with others, to form the One Hundred and Second Regiment,
N. Y. S. M., or “Van Buren Light Infantry.”

Having moved to Chicago, Judge Graham was, in 1872, especially prominent
in the Greely campaign. As a member of the State Committee which directed the
canvass, he was associated with such men as Lyman Trumbull, James R. Doo-

6i4

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

little, John M. Palmer, Cyrus McCormick, and others of the National organiza-
tion— men who had grown up in the West, but who heartily welcomed so stalwart
a supporter to their cause. He was for a time associated with Jacob Newman in
the practice of law in Chicago, and subsequently at the solicitation of friends, he
became a member of the Illinois legislature in order to give support to the World’s
Fair appropriation bill and the Drainage Canal bill.

But Judge Graham had another side to his character than that which brought
him into prominence as a lawyer, a politician, a judge, a legislator, a broad-
minded statesman. He was a representative of that rare element in modern life,
which, although an invaluable part of it, rests upon something ideal and philo-
sophical. Whenever he came in contact with men of note not only was he valued
as an equal in practical strength and resources, but also as one whose integrity
was beyond question. He was not only practical, but was imbued with the best
scientific and philosophic thought of the day, being often a co-worker with those
whose entire lives were thus absorbed. In Chicago, not only the philosophical
tendency of his mind, but the humanity of his nature was illustrated, by his
friendship for such men as Prof. David Swing and Dr. Thomas — with them he
founded the first Philosophical Society of Chicago, acting upon the occasion of
its organization in 1873 as president pro tern. During the last years of his life
he was compelled to withdraw from activities, social and otherwise, on account of
a throat difficulty.

A son and daughter were born to Nicholas R. and Julia Whitney Graham. The
son, Malcolm, died in early manhood; their daughter Maria married John H.
Snitzler, a man prominent in business and church circles, for thirty-five years, in,
Chicago. Judge Graham died at the residence of his daughter, 4339 Drexel Boule-
vard, Chicago, July 9, 1895, survived by his wife, daughter and three grandchildren.

The final words were spoken at his funeral by his sincere friend, James R.
Doolittle. Senator Doolittle said he “regarded Judge Graham as a most profound
thinker, abreast, if not in advance of most men — that during his own public career
through three administrations he had come in contact with many whom the world
called great, but he regarded Judge Graham, a man whom he knew intimately, as a
great man among the greatest,” but the highest tribute Senator Doolittle paid to
the memory of his friend was the emphasizing of the integrity of his character.

Of Ulster County he always harbored the kindliest remembrances, often reiterat-
ing the fact in those early days of a simpler life, that “A Dutchman’s word was as
good as his note.” Judge Graham’s fault was a too modest estimate of his superior
talent; consequently, he cared little for the accumulation of wealth— only for
those treasures that enrich the mind, which, perhaps, may be the only possessions
we may carry into the life beyond.

SAMUEL M. GRAY of Saugerties, N. Y., was born at Quarryville, Ulster
County, December 15, 1851. When but a child his parents removed to the town
of Olive, where he lived until about eighteen years of age, attending the district
school and later the public school in Katsbaan. After leaving school Mr. Gray
worked on his father’s farm for a time, and then for two years engaged in buying

BIOGRAPHICAL.

6iS

butter in Greene and Ulster Counties. In 1876 he opened a grocery store in
Quarryville, and afterwards enlarged his business so as to comprise general mer-
chandise. He continued in this for nine years and in the meantime, in 1883,
established a wholesale flour, feed, grain and grocery business in Saugerties. This
he carried on for two years, in connection with general merchandising and then
sold out his interest in Quarryville to his brother John. In 1886 he removed to
Saugerties and since that time has given his entire attention to his wholesale
business, shipping from sixty to one hundred and fifty cars of grain per month.
Mr. Gray received the first car load of grain (oats) that came to Saugerties over
the West Shore Railroad when it was opened for business, and since that time
has shipped over the road many thousand car loads, in fact he does the largest
business of any firm of the kind in Ulster County. Besides his extensive business
as above, Mr. Gray is a director in the First National Bank of Saugerties; a
member of the Board of Education, President of the Saugerties Sewer Commis-
sion, which has just completed over ten miles of sewerage in the village, and is
also President of the Saugerties Club.

He was married June 3, 1875, to Isabella Hommel of Quarryville and they have
one daughter, Ethel H.

Since becoming a resident of Saugerties, Mr. Gray has entered largely in its
growth and development and is identified with its best financial and commercial
interests.

JAMES W. HAINES was born in Albany County, N. Y., December 24, 1839.
When two years of age he came with his parents to Ulster County, where he
attended the district schools, and then learned the paper maker’s trade, which
he followed for nearly forty years. In 1895 he accepted the position as Keeper
of the Ulster County Almshouse, under the superintendency of John H. Davis.
He also served one year under Superintendent Sammons, when he resigned to take
charge of the electric light plant of New Paltz, After the election of C. L. Van
Orden as superintendent in 1905, the services of Mr. Haines as keeper were again
sought and he is now engaged in that capacity.

In i860 Mr. Haines married Miss Emily Van Leuven, by whom he had one son,
Harry, a resident of Kingston. Mrs. Haines died in 1897. For his second wife he
chose the widow of John H. Davis, who was formerly Miss Mary C. DuMond.
Samuel G. Haines, father of our subject, was born in Albany County in 1793, and was
authority for the story told by John Bagley relative to the burning of Kingston,
an account of which appears elsewhere in this book.

THE REV. CHARLES MERCER HALL was born in Brooklyn, N. Y.,
December 23, 1864. He is the eldest son of William Noble Hall and Flora Mar-
garet McAlister. He received his early education privately in England, where he
resided for twelve years. After ten years’ experience in the mercantile and banking
business, in Philadelphia, he took instruction in the classics under a tutor, and in
1888 entered the General Theological Seminary, New York, where for three years
he took a course as special student. On January 6, 1891, he was ordained Deacon

6i6

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

by the Rt. Rev. John Scarborough, D. D., Bishop of New Jersey, and on Decem-
ber 23, 1891, was advanced to the sacred order of priesthood. His first work was
as missionary at Camden, N. J., where he had charge of St. Barnabas and St.
Andrew’s Chapel. In 1893 he became curate of the Church of the Beloved
Disciple, New York, and in 1894 came to Kingston as Vicar of the Mission Church
of the Holy Cross and Curate of St. John’s Church. In 1896 he became first
Rector of the Church of the Holy Cross. Prior to his ordination as deacon, he
was offered the rectorship of St. Matthew’s Church, Omaha, Neb., and later he
declined an election to the Church of the Ascension, Atlantic City, N. J. He also
declined curacies at the Church of the Evangelists, Philadelphia, the Church of the
Redeemer, New York, and All Saints’, Orange Valley, N. J. In 1904 he re-
ceived the degree of M. A. honoris causa from St. Stephen’s College, Annan-
dale. He has published The Life of a Christian and Calvary Every Day be-
sides various sermons and magazine articles. He is a member of the New
York Catholic Club, also of the Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament and the
Guild of All Souls. He has been President of the Ulster County S. P. C. C. since
its organization and was recently elected Honorary Chaplain of the Fourteenth
Separate Company, N. G. S. N. Y. In 1898 he married Bertha, only daughter of
Chief Judge Alton Brooks Parker and Mary Louise Schoonmaker, and has issue
Alton Parker Hall, born March 9, 1900, and Mary Macalister Hall, born June 25,
1902.

BENJAMIN F. HALLET, son of Daniel and Abbie J. (Brannan) Hallet, was
born in Scranton, Pa., in 1852. When a lad he came to Kingston with his parents
and secured his education in the schools of the city. Mr. Hallet, since 1870, has
been engaged in Kingston, in the General Upholstery business, and the decoration
of antiques, succeeding to the business established by the Schryvers. In the homes
of many of the representative families of Ulster County are to be found specimens
of his handiwork.

Mr. Hallet is a member of the Odd Fellows and Knights of Pythias. He mar-
ried Miss Anna Yarrow, of Ellenville, N. Y., by whom he has one daughter, Bessie.

His mother, Abbie J. Brannan, daughter of Abigail Styles, was born in Esopus.
Her father located there previous to the Revolutionary period and helped protect
the lookout forts at Kingston Point. He came from Holland.

URBAN HAMBURGER, of Kingston, was born in Covington, Ky., in 1843.
He was completing his studies in the public schools there about the time the Civil
War began, and he immediately enlisted in the 22nd Regiment of Indiana, serving
four years in the defence of his country. He then engaged in cotton raising in
Tennessee and Arkansas for about three years, but lost all he had through the
floods in that section. In 1868 he came to Rondout and engaged with the Rondout
& Oswego R. R. (now U. & D. R. R.) in building bridges over the Esopus Creek,
between Rondout and Stamford. In 1877 his services were secured by the D. & H.
Canal Co., with whom he remained twenty-five years constructing bridges and

BIOGRAPHICAL. 617

piers. For the past five years he has been superintendent of the boat yards for
the Consolidated Rosendale Cement Co.

Mr. Hamburger has served fourteen years as Alderman of the 7th Ward and
was President of the Common Council one term. He is a member of St. Mary’s
Church and a charter member of the G. A. R. In 1869 he married Miss Jane
Flynn, of Rondout. They have five children: Mary, Lovetta, George, Nellie and
Harry.

CHARLES M. HARCOURT, son of Matthew and Sarah (Deyo) Harcourt,
was born in the town of Plattekill, Ulster County, June 6, 1847. He obtained his
education at the district schools and Highland Institute. In 1870 Mr. Harcourt
was united in marriage to Miss Gertrude M., daughter of Jacob Elting. They
began life on a farm in Lloyd township, where they remained sixteen years, and in
1886 removed to the village of New Paltz. Here Mr. Harcourt purchased some
sixty acres of land within the corporation, which he laid out in village lots, the
location being known as “Harcourt Heights.”

Mr. Harcourt is First Vice-President and Director of the New Paltz Savings
Bank, and a Director in the Pluguenot Bank. He is on the Finance Committee
of both these institutions. He has served as trustee of the village, and for twenty
years was Superintendent of the New Paltz turnpike. He has been a member of
the Board of Trustees of the New Paltz Normal School since 1904.

Alfred Harcourt, only son of our subject, was born January 31, 1881, in the town
of Lloyd. After finishing his preliminary education he entered Columbia Univer-
sity, from which he graduated with honors in 1904, being chosen valedictorian of
his class. A daughter was born to them, Magdeline, in 1875 and died in 1899, leav-
ing a daughter, Magdeline Elizabeth Brooks, born December 18, 1898.

Alfred is now engaged with the firm of Henry Holt & Co., of New York City.
Mr. Harcourt traces his ancestry to Richard Harcourt, his great-great-grand-
father, a native of England, who located in Ulster County in 1754. In 1758 he was
commissioned as one of His Majesty’s justices for the State of New York.

ELTING HARP, son of Simon and Helen J. (Clearwater) Harp, was born at
New Paltz, in i860. His early advantages in life were meagre and he left school
at the age of eleven years to accept employment as water-boy on the Wallkill
Valley R. R., then in course of construction. In 1873 he entered the employ
of J. J. Hasbrouck, as clerk, receiving a salary of $50 for the first year. Here he
remained five years, when he decided to learn the harness maker’s trade, at which
he continued until 1883, when he established a harness making business of his
own at New Paltz. In 1888 he removed his business to the present commodious
building which he had erected, and now conducts one of the most complete harness,
blanket and trunk stores in the county.

Politically he is a Democrat, and held the office of Town Clerk for ten consecutive
years. He is a member of the K. of P. and a charter member of the Ulster Hook
and Ladder Co., of which he has been Foreman. He is now one of the Trustees
of New Paltz Village.

6i8

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

He was married in 1892 to Carrie C., daughter of W. C. Tamney. They have
seven children, Helen, Delia T., Warren C., Peter Hayt, Frank Ross, Harry Valen-
tine and Marion Borden.

Since 1902 Mr. Harp has dealt extensively in choice country property in the
vicinity of New Paltz, and during the past two years many important real estate
transfers have been effected through his agency.

BENJAMIN TAYLOR HARRIS, son of the Rev. John Ferguson Harris, was
born at Pompton Plains, N. J., in i860. In 1867 his father was transferred to
Hurley, Ulster County, N. Y., to take charge of the Reformed Dutch Church, and
it was there our subject obtained his preliminary education. He was engaged for a
time in office work in Kingston, and in 1882 went to New York as bookkeeper for
George Crawford, who was in the blue-stone business. He remained there until
1888, when he purchased the business from Mr. Crawford for $18,000. In 1892 he
consolidated his plant with the Ulster Blue Stone Co. of Malden, of which he
became president, continuing in that office until his death, which occurred June 17,
1901. Mr. Harris was a self-made man in every respect, and was one of Sauger-
ties’s most progressive citizens.

October 22, 1883, Mr. Harris was united in marriage to Miss Anna Kate Wend-
over, who survives him with the following children, Maud Wendover, Benjamin
Taylor, Helen VanDeusen and Stephen Wendover.

Mr. Harris was a Republican in politics, a Mason, a member of the Central
Presbyterian Church of New York City, a member of the Board- of Education of
Saugerties, President of the Saugerties Club, and prior to his death took an active
part in the Central Presbyterian Church. Benjamin T. Harris is in the Albany
Business College, preparing himself for an active business career.

WILLIAM R. HARRISON, Secretary and Treasurer of the well-known whole-
sale grocery house of Matthews & Harrison, has resided in Kingston since the
organization of the firm in 1898.

Mr. Harrison was born in Newburgh, N. Y., in 1865, and was engaged in the
wholesale grocery business there sixteen years. He married Miss Martha F, Kelly,
and they have one daughter, Mildred F. He is affiliated with No. 10 Lodge, F. &
A. M., and has served as Police Commissioner since Mayor Thompson’s adminis-
tration. He is numbered among Ulster County’s representative business men.

CHARLES A. HARTSHORN, son of Charles H. and Elizabeth (Snider)
Hartshorn, was born in Orange County in 1869. He obtained his education at the
public schools of Newburgh and Eastman’s Business College. He accepted a
position as bookkeeper for a year and then became traveling salesman in the grocery
line. In 1893 Mr. Hartshorn located in the village of Marlborough, establishing a
grocery and hardware store, and in 1897 built his present commodious establish-
ment. The building is a five-story brick structure 38x85 feet, three floors of
which are occupied by Mr. Hartshorn; the next floor is divided into office suites.

BIOGRAPHICAL. 619

while the top floor is the lodge-room of the I. O. O. F. The building is illuminated
by acetylene gas and is the most pretentious business block in Marlborough.

He is identified with the Masonic fraternity and the I. O. O. F. He was united
in marriage to Miss Georgia Griffin, and they have two children. Mr. Hartshorn
is one of Ulster County’s most energetic business men and his well-directed efforts
are bringing him success.

A. C. HASBROUCK, Coroner, of Highland, was born in New Paltz, in 1837. He
is a descendant in the fifth generation from one of the patentees (Abraham Has-
brouck) of New Paltz, who was conspicuous both in the civil and ecclesiastical
affairs of that early period.

When our subject was three years of age, his father came to Highland, where
the elder Hasbrouck owned about five hundred acres of land. Here A. C. Has-
brouck’s early years were passed. He attended the local schools and the Claverack
Academy. After leaving school, he went west and was subsequently engaged upon
the railroad. In 1865, he returned to Highland, where he has since lived. Mr.
Hasbrouck was a member of the firm of Brown & Hasbrouck, Auctioneers, a number
of years. Since the firm was dissolved, Mr. Hasbrouck has conducted the business
alone. He has served in different public offices ; was Town Clerk for two terms,
Justice of the Peace for six years and Associate Justice of Sessions, with Judge
Kenyon, and in 1896 was elected Coroner of the County, which office he is still
occupying.

Mr. Hasbrouck married Julia M. Dun Combe, and they have four children living,
DuBois Hasbrouck, Levi, Alex C., and Mary, and he has one brother, Herman,
living in Denver.

C. V. HASBROUCK, M. D., of Rosendale, was born at Cottekill, May 5, 1854.
He is a direct descendant of one of the original patentees of New Paltz. Dr. Has-
brouck graduated from the State Normal School, after which he attended Bellevue
Medical College, in New York City, finally graduating from the Long Island
Medical College in 1876. After graduating he immediately commenced the practice
of his profession in Milton, Ulster County, where he remained three years. In 1879
he removed to Rosendale, where he has since continued in practice. During his
residence in Rosendale, Dr. Hasbrouck has served as Coroner for three years, and
as President of the Village. He has been Health Officer the past five years, is a
member of the Ck)unty and State Medical Societies, and has served as President
and Vice-President of the former, and is also a member of the State Medical Society
and the Holland Society.

Dr. Hasbrouck married Miss Elizabeth Heuser, of New York City. They have
no children.

GILBERT D. B. HASBROUCK, ex-Justice of the Supreme Court, is a native
of Ulster County, and has been a resident of Kingston for many years. He comes
of Huguenot ancestry and traces his lineage to Jan Hasbrouck, who in 1660 fled

620

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

from Calais, France, to America to escape persecution, and settled in Ulster
County, where he was made one of the New Paltz patentees.

Judge Hasbrouck was born at Port Ewen, Ulster County, February 19, i860, and
is a son of Dr. Josiah and Ellen J. (Blauvelt) Hasbrouck. He attended the New
Paltz Academy, from which he graduated in 1876. He then entered Rutgers College,
graduating therefrom in 1880, with the degree of Master of Arts. He began the
study of law in the office of the late Hon. W. S. Kenyon, and in 1881 entered
Columbia Law School. On May 28, 1882, he was admitted to the Bar and entered
the office of Judge A. T. Clearwater. In 1883 he was elected to the Assembly ol
the State from the Second District, and was again elected to that office the year
following.

Following his retirement from the Legislature, he opened a law office in Rondout,
and on November 19, 1887, was appointed Corporation Counsel of the City of
Kingston. On January i, 1894, he received the appointment of Second Deputy
Attorney-General of the State, under Attorney-General Theodore E. Hancock, who
was nominated to that office largely through the efforts of Judge Hasbrouck. He
served one year as second deputy and then became first deputy, which office he
retained during Hancock’s incumbency. In 1894, Judge Hasbrouck formed a law
partnership with W. N. Gill and the firm was known as Hasbrouck & Gill until dis-
solved in 1899. Mr. Hasbrouck was appointed Judge of the Court of Claims of New
York State in December, 1901, and in December, 1903, upon the death of Hon.
Charles Saxton, was designated Presiding Judge of that Court and served in that
capacity until his appointment to the Supreme Court, December 20, 1904.

On January 13, 1886, he was married to Julia M. Munn, a daughter of the late
Rev. Anson F. Munn of Coxsackie, and they have three children, Anne, Elise and
Ellen.

JACOB M. HASBROUCK was born in New Paltz in 1834, where he attended
select and public schools and New Paltz Academy. He engaged in farming until
twenty-six years of age, and in i860 embarked in the mercantile business, which
he continued until 1872, when he was elected Treasurer of Ulster County. He
has been Secretary and Treasurer of the New Paltz Savings Bank for some thirty-
five years, and President of the Village of New Paltz for many years.

He was united in marriage to Sarah E. Penniman, and his son, Howard, who
resides in New York, is the only surviving child. Maurice P. died November 28,
1905. Our subject is one of the most prominent and useful citizens of New Paltz,
and is a son of Maurice Hasbrouck, who died in 1876.

JOSIAH HASBROUCK, M. D. — On the twenty-seventh day of April, eighteen
hundred sixty-four. Port Ewen in the town of Esopus became the birthplace of one
of our most honored and distinguished citizens, Dr. Jcrsiah HasBrouck.

Dr. HasBrouck is of Huguenot ancestry, being a lineal descendant of Jan Has-
Brouck, who in 1660, in order to escape religious persecution, fled from Calais,
France, to America. He settled in Ulster County, where he was made one of the
patentees of New Paltz.

BIOGRAPHICAL.

621

The Doctor’s elementary education was obtained in the schools of his native
town; later he attended Kingston Academy and Williston Seminary, Mass. At the
conclusion of his curriculum in these institutions, and after a brief preparation
under the preceptorship of his father, Dr. Josiah HasBrouck, Sr., he entered the
Albany Medical College, from which he graduated in 1885. After his graduation he
entered the Post-Graduate Hospital, New York City, and also served on the out-
patient department of Bellevue Hospital.

He began the practice of his profession at Somerville, N. J., but, as his father
required assistance in his large and lucrative practice. Dr. HasBrouck returned to
Port Ewen, where he has built up for himself a large clientele and earned an
enviable reputation as a skilful physician and surgeon, and an honored and highly
valued citizen. Dr. HasBrouck, Sr., died March 25, 1889, and the mantle of a
learned and beloved father fell upon the shoulders of a worthy son, well qualified
to follow in his footsteps.

Always a staunch Republican, Dr. HasBrouck has ever had the welfare of his
party at heart. He served one year on the Ulster County Board of Supervisors,
and in 1900 was a candidate for nomination for Sheriff against Philip Schantz and
Zadoc P. Boice. In the convention, Dr. HasBrouck received forty-eight out of a
possible seventy-five votes. The Democrats that year nominated William T.
Brodhead, but Dr. Hasbrouck was elected by the greatest majority (1,827) ever
given in the county.

Dr. HasBrouck is prominently connected with Lodge 343, F. and A. M., of
Rondout, also Hope Lodge No. 65, of Port Ewen. He is an ex-president of the
Ulster County J^Iedical Society, and has served on important committees in the
State Medical Society. He has been a member of the Rondout Club since its
organization; for years he was a director of the National Bank of Rondout; and,
when the Rondout Canoe Club was at the height of its glory. Dr. HasBrouck was
its Commodore.

Being interested in his native village, he has at' various times endeavored to
advance the interests of his friends and neighbors, and as he was at one time
President of the Port Ewen Improvement Association, he has been active in intro-
ducing improvements into the town, the latest of w’hich is the electric light.

On retiring from the Sheriff’s office in 1903, in partnership with Capt. J. S.
Voight, Dr. HasBrouck bought the Sleight property, including the ferry, at Sleights-
burg. Four months later he purchased Capt. Voight’s interest in the property and
became sole owmer. Since then there has been a marked improvement in the
ferry servdce. On parts of the Sleight farm there are valuable deposits of sand and
clay. On January 25, 1906, he sold a part of the farm, lying east of Newburgh
turnpike, to Alonzo Rose, which will be used during the coming season for brick
manufacturing.

Dr. HasBrouck is a member of an illustrious family. Of his father, the late Dr.
Josiah HasBrouck, nothing further need be said, as he was well-known throughout
the county for his skill, integrity and uprightness. His brothers, the Hon. G. D. B.
HasBrouck, ex-Judge of the Supreme Court, and Dr. Walter HasBrouck of
Kingston, are well known here both for their professional and social eminence, as

622

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

is also Dr. John M. Hasbrouck, Editor of the Rockland County News, in Nyack,
N. Y.

During his incumbency of the Sheriff’s office, Dr. HasBrouck accompanied by his
brother, Judge HasBrouck, toured Europe, visiting all the principal cities on the
Continent. His attention, however, was centered on Old Holland, the home of his
mother’s ancestors, where he greatly admired the thrift of the people.

GEORGE HAUCK was born in Germany in 1832. He obtained his education
in the schools of that country and in 1850 emigrated to America, where he soon
secured employment in the brewing business. In 1861 he located in Rohdout as
foreman of a brewery, where he remained until 1864, when he established the George
Hauck Brewing Co. The daily output was then 30 barrels, and it has increased
steadily to 140 barrels per day. Mr. Hauck is a member of the K. of P. and the
Odd Fellows. Politically he is a Democrat. In 1856 he was married to Barbara
Welker and they have five children, the sons John and Adam being associated with
their father in the brewery business.

Adam Hauck, the father of our subject, was born in Germany in 1797 and died
in 1870. He also was a brewer by occupation. The George Hauck Brewing Co.
holds a place among the prominent industries of Ulster County and Mr. Hauck is
recognized as one of Kingston’s successful business men.

CLARENCE P. HENDRICKS, of the Hendricks Brick Company, resides in the
old colonial homestead built by his ancestors over one hundred and fifty years ago.
This house is one of Ulster’s landmarks and stands on the banks of the Hudson
three miles north of the city of Kingston. Mr. Hendricks began the manufacture
of brick in 1890 in partnership with Charles M. Streeter; in 1900 he purchased
Mr. Streeter’s interest and has since conducted the business alone. He employs
about one hundred and thirty hands on the place, and produces fifteen million brick
of a superior quality annually.

He is a member of the National Brick Makers’ Association, the I. O. G. T. and
the Holland Society. He married Maria Luther, daughter of Henry B. Luther of
Kingston, and they have one son, Clarence Abram, who is identified with his father
in the brick business. Both Mr. and Mrs. Hendricks are members of the First
Reformed Dutch Church of Kingston, and for many years the former was Secre-
tary of the Union Sunday School at East Kingston. Mr. Hendricks traces his
ancestry to Franz Hendricksen, who was born in Brevoort, Holland, and settled
in New York about 1670, later removing to Dutchess County, and some years
thereafter the family came to Ulster and located on the land now owned by our
subject.

Martin E. Hendricks was born in the house now occupied by his son Clarence,
May 28, 1822. He married Harriet Ann Wynkoop in 1850, and Clarence was their
only child. He lived an unostentatious life, devoting his time mainly to
the cultivation of his farm. In politics he was a Democrat, liberal in his views and
decided in his convictions. He filled the office of School Trustee for many years,
and was Overseer of the Poor in 1872-3. Both Mr. and Mrs. Hendricks were

BIOGRAPHICAL.

623

members of the First Reformed Dutch Church of Kingston, and Mr. Hendricks
served the East Kingston Sunday School as its Superintendent for a long period.
His death occurred in June, 1905, at the age of eighty-three years, and his loss has
been keenly felt by the community in which he passed a long and useful life.

HOWARD HENDRICKS. — Born on the old Hendricks farm, South Flatbush,
west bank of the Hudson, October 27, 1840; son of Philip Van Keuren Hendricks,
who died in 1847. Dutch ancestry both sides. Franz Hendricksen came to America
from Brevoort, in the Netherlands, about 1670. Howard remained on the farm,
got his education at the district school, Kingston Academy, Hudson River Insti-
tute, and at Bryant, Stratton & Packard’s Business College, New York City, from
which he graduated in 1861 ; studied phonography, which he practiced and taught
at the phrenological publishing house of Fowler & Wells, New York, in 1863,
having charge of a large class. Returned to the farm; experimented with new
fruits, grains and vegetables; introduced the Early Rose potato in Ulster County
in 1869, also new varieties of wheat and corn, which he sent out to nearly every
State in the Union at fancy prices. Member of the American Pomological So-
ciety. Married in 1869; moved to Kingston, 1878, where he sold pianos and organs
for several years. Musically inclined; secretary of the Kingston Philharmonic
Society five years. Engaged in journalism since 1878; reporter, correspondent.
Associated Press representative and editorial writer. Special correspondent of
New York Tribune at New Orleans Cotton Exposition, 1885; and the Chicago
World’s Fair in 1893. Now proprietor of Hendricks’s Advertising Agency, Kings-
ton, N. Y. Was twice beaten for political office in the old town of Kingston, where
Republicans were, always counted out. Was among the first to advocate good
roads, when nobody listened, proposing radical changes in the entire system of
road improvement, both in the press and before the Ulster County Board of Super-
visors, over twenty years ago, including the money system and State aid. Always
an enthusiastic lover of nature in all her varying moods and aspects.

JOHN F. HERBERT, proprietor of the Herbert Brush Factory, was born in
Limerick, Ireland, in 1848. He attended the public schools of his native place and
at the age of eighteen came to America and completed his education at The Peter
Cooper Institute in New York. He has been actively engaged in the manufacture of
brushes for thirty years, with plants in Brooklyn and Kingston.

In 1896 he took up his residence in Kingston, and his energy has added much
to the industrial development of the city. Mr. Herbert is a staunch Republican, a
member of the Kingston Club and Royal Arcanum. His four sons, John M., Alfred
A., John F., Jr., and Leo F. are associated with him in his business.

DR. EBER H. HESTON, of Clintondale, Ulster County, was born at New
Castle County, State of Delaware, October 3, 1854. He attended the schools of
Highland and private school in Poughkeepsie. He then entered Jefferson Medical
College at Philadelphia, from which he was graduated in March, 1877. He practiced

624

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

two years in Clintondale and five years in Gardiner. In 1886, owing to failing health,
he went West and located in Nebraska, where he remained nine years. Upon his re-
turn East in 1895, he again located in Clintondale, where he has since remained. In
1901 he opened a drug store which he conducts in connection with his practice.

Dr. Heston is a member of the American Medical Association and the State and
County Medical Societies, also the I. O. O. F., the National Protective Legion, and
has served the town as health officer since 1895. His father, Dr. Abiah P. Heston,
was also a graduate of Jefferson Medical College and received his diploma in 1850.
He was born in Pennsylvania, and at the outbreak of the Civil War was located in
Fredericksburg, Va. He was a member of the State Militia and the authorities
demanded that he join the Rebel Army, but his sympathies were all with the North.
He managed to escape in the night and succeeded in joining the Union Army, as
surgeon, under Burnside. He served through the period of his enlistment, then
came North and located at Highland, Ulster County, where he practiced until his
death in 1874, at the age of fifty years. During his practice there for some five or
six years he, with H. B. Deyo, conducted a drug store. He was also postmaster
at Highland for several years.

HIGHMOUNT. — A cottage settlement upon the high summit between Pine Hill
and Griffin’s Corners, including the great northern slope of Belle Ayr Mountain and
the smaller eastern side of the Summit Mountain (commonly called “Monkey Hill”)
was founded in 1883 by Dr. J. Glentworth Butler, a Presbyterian minister of
Brooklyn, N. Y. A few years later the name of Highmount, selected by him as
both appropriate and unknown to the Post-Office Directory, was given to the post-
office and the adjacent region. At this time of writing, beside the Grand Hotel on
the southern side of Summit Mountain, Highmount contains five boarding-houses, a
large summer school and about thirty large and small cottages, mainly owned and
occupied by summer residents.

WILLIAM A. HILDEBRANT, proprietor of the Irvington, Woodstock, N. Y.,
is numbered among the prominent hotel men of the Catskills. Prior to taking this
hotel, he was identified with the “Frontenac” in the Thousand Islands and the
“Royal Palace” of Miami, Florida, two of the leading resorts in America.

The Irvington is at the foot of Overlook Mountain, ten miles from Kingston and
Saugerties. The location is one of the most beautiful and healthful in the State.
The hotel has accommodations for seventy-five guests, its rooms are large and
airy and wide piazzas and shady lawns add greatly to the comfort and pleasure of
the guests. It is reached by the West Shore and Ulster and Delaware railways and
the Hudson River steamboats by way of Kingston.

R. W. HILL, of Pine Hill, N. Y., is a native of Middletown, Delaware (bounty.
His parents moved into Ulster County in 1856, locating first at Shandaken. Mr.
Hill spent one year there. He had fitted himself for the profession of school-
teaching for a time in both Delaware and Ulster Counties, but desiring a more
active business career, he went to Gouldsboro, Pa., and engaged in the mercantile

BIOGRAPHICAL.

625

business; two years later he opened a mercantile establishment at Pine Hill, which
has grown to be the most important enterprise in the village, and is now under the
management of his son, Andrew D. Hill. The business consists of general mer-
chandise, lumber, coal and furniture.

Mr. Hill was born May 29, 1835. He has a family of two sons and two daughters,
Effie, Andrew D., Fred and Mildred. He has been a most enterprising and indus-
trious business man and has served one term as Supervisor.

CONRAD HILTEBRANT, of Kingston, was born in Germany in 1838 and emi-
grated to America with his parents in 1844, locating at Rondout, where he attended
the public schools and grew to manhood. In 1868 he embarked in the business of
building barges and steamboats, which has expanded steadily and today his ship-
yards are among the largest in this section, giving employment to one hundred and
thirty men.

Mr. Hiltebrant is a director of the Rondout Savings Bank; trustee of Mount Re-
pose Cemetery and the Industrial Home, and a member of the Board of Education.
Politically he is a Republican. He has been twice married, his first wife being
Caroline Seitz of Rondout, and his second, Elizabeth Steinheauser of Rochester.
He has seven children living. His father, John Hiltebrant, who was for many
years in the employ of the D. & H. Canal Co., died in 1884, in his seventy-sixth
year.

FRANK B. HOORNBEEK, Cashier of the First National Bank of Ellenville, was
born in Napanoch, N. Y., May i, i860. A few years after his birth, his parents
removed to Ellenville, and in the schools of that village he received his education.
In 1892 he entered the First National Bank, as bookkeeper, and in 1898 became its
cashier.

Mr. Hoornbeek is thoroughly alive to the interests of his town, and is the leading
spirit in its public enterprises. He is chairman of the Masonic Building Association
and of the Executive Board of the Fantinekill Cemetery Association. He is also
identified with various commercial and industrial enterprises, such as the Ellenville
Zinc Company, of which he is Treasurer. He is President of a hardware concern in
Belton, Texas, and a director in a cotton mill at Florence, Alabama. He was the
prime mover in the organization of the Ellenville Public Library. He raised the
money for the erection of the handsome monument commemorating the Fantinekill
Massacre of the Bevier and Sax families by the Indians, in 1779. This monument
stands at the outskirts of the village of Ellenville on the road to Napanoch, and
marks the spot where the victims of the massacre were buried. Mr. Hoornbeek was
recently appointed, by Governor Higgins, as one of the managers of New York
State Reformatories, a deserving compliment to his well-known thoroughness and
exactness in public as well as private affairs.

On his mother’s side Mr. Hoornbeek is a lineal descendant of Sebastian Bauman,
a member of the Society of Cincinnati, the first society organized in America, and
the certificate of membership is in Mr. Hoornbeek’s possession, signed Geo. Wash-

6^6

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

ington, Pres., H. Knox, Sec. This society was organized at the close of the Revo-
lutionary War to perpetuate the friendship of the officers and commemorate the
independence of America. His father, Methusalem Hoornbeek, was a native of
the town of Wawarsing, and for years was a member of the firm of Hermance &
Co. in Ellenville. He was prominent in politics' and held the office of Supervisor of
his town several terms. His death occurred in 1882.

HENRY F. HOORNBEEK, treasurer of the Ellenville Savings Bank, is a native
of the town of Wawarsing, having been born at Napanoch, July 10, 1874. He
obtained his education at Ellenville Academy and Eastman’s Business College, at
Poughkeepsie, of which he is a graduate. The first eight years of his business life
he spent with his father who conducted a store at Napanoch. In 1900 he came
to Ellenville and took the position of teller in the Ellenville Savings Bank and held
that position until May 8, 1906, when he was elected to his present office. He mar-
ried Mary C. Pillsbury of Napanoch, October ii, 1905.

His father, L. D. B. Hoornbeek, a leading merchant of Napanoch, married
Catherine D. B. Freer, a daughter of Henry D. B. Freer, a descendant of Hugo
Freer, one of the New Paltz patentees. Mr. Hoornbeek is of Holland descent, and
the family was among the very early settlers in the vicinity and have always been a
prominent factor in the business .and social life of southern Ulster.

JOHN C. HOORNBEEK, of Wawarsing, a self-made man, and numbered among
the substantial citizens of Ulster County, is a descendant of the old and highly
respected Hoornbeek family, which came from Holland to America before the Revo-
lutionary War. He also traces his descent from the DuBois family of Gardiner,
and the DuPuys of Rochester. Mr. Hoornbeek’s father, grandfather and great-
grandfather, were all born at Wawarsing and have resided there upon lands which
have been in possession of the Hoornbeeks since colonial days. His grandfather was
the first Supervisor of the town, holding the office from 1806 to 1810, and was twice
chosen after that, 1816-17, and 1829-31.

John C. Hoornbeek attended the public schools at Wawarsing until the age of
thirteen, then after two years, at Napanoch, finished his education in Kingston
Academy. Shortly after leaving school he decided to go into business for himself,
and proceeding to Port Hixon, on the canal, he opened a grocery store, which he
carried on for six years. He then embarked in tanning and mercantile business,
forming a partnership with William H. De Garmo, which continued until 1870,
when he bought out his partner and continued the business alone for six years. In
1873 he began the manufacture of excelsior. This proved profitable and in 1880
he built another factory at Boiceville, in Olive township. In 1900 he erected a mill
at Napanoch for the manufacture of dry pulp for dynamite, which gives employment
to many hands.

In January, 1859, Mr. Hoornbeek married Miss Amelia VanLuven, of Rochester.
Four children have been born to them, Louis A., Elias D., Clarence and Arthur, all
living with the exception of Clarence. Mr. Hoornbeek has held various public

BIOGRAPHICAL.

627

offices; is a member of the Masonic fraternity and one of the most liberal-minded
and public-spirited citizens in the county.

LOUIS A. HOORNBEEK, of Wawarsing, was born in that town, October 31st,
1864. He is a son of John C and Amelia (Van Luven) Hoornbeek. His ancestors
have owned lands and passed their lives in Wawarsing since Revolutionary days.
His great-grandfather was the first Supervisor of the town.

Louis A. Hoornbeek attended the Ellenville Public Schools and the Rhinebeck
High School, and has, since leaving school, been engaged in farming and in the
manufacture of dry wood pulp in Napanoch. He was married in 1885 to Miss
Francis Estelle Brundage, and to them have been born three children, Ethel B.,
Clarence A. and John C., Jr. Mr. Hoornbeek is an energetic and able business man
and is very highly esteemed wherever known.

REV. HOUGH HOUSTON, pastor of St. James M. E. Church of Kingston, was
born in West Virginia in 1867. After graduating from the University of West
Virginia with the degree of A. B., he entered the Drew Theological Seminary, and
at the conclusion of a three-years’ course received the degree of B. D. He was
ordained Deacon at Kingston in 1895, by Bishop John P. Newman, and Elder, in
1899, at Newburgh, by Bishop I. W. Joyce.

He has been in charge successively of the M. E. Church at Pine Bush, Pleasant-
ville, Mount Kisco, N. Y., and the Centary Church, New York City. In 1905 he
became pastor of St. James Methodist Episcopal Church of Kingston. Mr. Houston
is identified with the Masonic order and a member of Phi Kappa Psi College fra-
ternity. He was united in marriage to Zorah Belle McIntyre, and three children
have blessed this union.

FREDERICK A. HUNT, M. D,, of Napanoch, was born in Manlius, Onondaga
County, N. Y., July 21, 1875. He was educated in the public and high schools of
Syracuse and graduated from the Syracuse University with the degree of M. D.,
Class 1898. The doctor then served as Interne in the St. Lawrence State Hospital
for one year, and at the Elmira State Reformatory for a like period of time. In
1901 he was appointed physician to the Eastern New York Reformatory and re-
moved to Napanoch, a position which he is still most acceptably serving. He
also enjoys a general practice in the vicinity of Napanoch. Dr. Hunt was married
in June, 190T. to Georgia May Clarke, a daughter of George R. and Mary E. Clark
of Syracuse, and to them were born two children, Mary Elizabeth, born June 14,
1903, in Syracuse, and Lucy Clark, born June i, 1905, in Napanoch.

Dr. Hunt is a member of the County and State Medical Societies, Acacian Lodge
No. 70s, F. and A. M. ; Wawarsing Chapter No. 246, R. A. M. ; Rondout Com-
mandery No. 52, K. T. ; Cyprus Temple, Mystic Shrine, and Napanoch Council of
Junior Order of American Mechanics.

FREDERICK W. INGALLS, M. D., a direct descendant of Edward Ingalls, who
came from England and settled in Lynn, Mass., in 1600, and a son of Rev. Wilson

628

THE COaNTY OF ULSTER.

Ingalls, was born in Glenville, Schenectady County, N. Y,, February 9, 1840. He
studied medicine with Dr. Strong of Cayuga County, N. Y., and with Prof. John C.
Sanders, M. D., of Cleveland, Ohio, and was graduated from the Cleveland Homeo-
pathic Medical College in 1863. In the same year he located in Kingston, and was
the second physician to prescribe homeopathically in this section. By his thor-
ough knowledge of the profession and his skill in the treatment of difficult cases,
he soon secured a good practice which constantly increased until the time of his
death, February 15, 1885. He was interested in business enterprises aside from his
profession, being a director and vice-president of the Kingston National Bank and a
trustee and first vice-president of the Kingston Savings Bank.

Dr. Ingalls was a member of the American Institute of Homeopathy and of the
State Society. He was a Scottish Rite Mason and a member of the Dutch Reformed
Church.

On May 18, 1870, he married Miss Henrietta, only daughter of Peter J. DuBois.
Five children were born to them — Frederick DuBois, Orland DuBois, Mary Hamlin,
Harriet Pardee and Wilson C.

CHARLES IRWIN, attorney of Kingston, was born in Sullivan County, New
York, March 10, 1857. He attended the public schools and Monticello Academy and
for a time taught in the schools of the county. In 1875 he came to Kingston and
began studying law with Lawton & Stebbins and in 1878 was admitted to the bar. He
took up practice in Sullivan County and remained ten years; a portion of the
time he was Special Judge and Surrogate of the county. He then opened a law
office in Kingston.

In the fall of 1901 he was nominated by the Democratic party as a candidate for
the office of District Attorney and, although defeated, ran several hundred votes
ahead of his ticket and carried the city of Kingston by over six hundred majority.
Mr. Irwin is a member of many of the local fraternal societies ; in Kingston Lodge
No. 10, F. & A. M., he is Senior Warden. He is a member of Mount Koreb
Chapter, R. A. M., Rondout Commandery, K. T., Cypress Temple, Mystic Shrine
of Albany, Kosciusko Lodge No. 86, I. O. O. F., Ulster Lodge No. 76, Knights of
Pythias, Minnewaska Tribe No. 130, I. O. R. M., Colonial Camp No. 13, W. O. W.,
and Norwood Conclave No. 662, I. O. H.

Judge Roscoe Irwin, son of Charles, was born April 20, 1880. He was educated at
Kingston Academy, took up the study of law with his father, and was admitted to
the bar November 20, 1901. He then became a law partner wdth his father. In
November of the following year he was elected to the office of Judge of the City
Court of the City of Kingston, for a term of three years, and was re-elected in
November, 1905, his majority at both elections being over five hundred. As a just
and impartial Judge, he administers the duties of his office in a highly satisfactory
manner. He is a member of Kingston Lodge No. 10, F. & A. M., Minnewaska
Tribe No. 130, I. O. R. M., Kingston Tent No. 397, K, O. T. M., and Colonial

BIOGRAPHICAL.

629

Camp No. 13, W. O. W. He is Secretary of the Ulster County Bar Association,
President of Wiltwyck Hose Company, and an officer in Company M, First Regi-
ment, N. G. N. Y.

JOSEPH JAGGER, Superintendent of the J. W. Dimick Company, carpet manu-
facturers at Rifton, N. Y., was born at Halifax, England, December 17, 1840. He
came to this country in 1877 and engaged with the A, T. Stewart Company, to
take full charge of the new carpet mills (weaving department) at Groverville,
town of Fishkill, N. Y., and was there for nine years. He there formed a partner-
ship with Jabez Nicholl and was unfortunately burned out before the expiration
of a year. He did not rebuild, but in 1887, engaged with Mr. J. W. Dimick, of New
York City, to take full charge of his ingrain and worsted and also his yarn mills,
at Rifton, Ulster County. He also materially aided Mr. Dimick in building up
the present Wilton and velvet art rug mills, which were incorporated in 1894, as
the J. W. Dimick Company, with a capital stock of $250,000. The interest that Mr.
Jagger had in the Rifton Manufacturing Company was disposed of and he took
stock in the new company, which he has since held and increased; thus assisting
in the building up of the present industry. He has held the position of super-
intendent and director of the company for some years. On April i, 1907. the
capital stock of this company will be increased to $500,000, one-half of which will
be preferred stock at 7 per cent.

Mr. Jagger has been an American citizen for twenty-five years and is a member
of Beacon Lodge, No. 283, F. and A. M., of Fishkill, N. Y., also a member of No.
75, Royal Arch Mount Horeb of Kingston, N. Y., a Knight Templar of Rondout
Commandery No. 52, and a member of Cyprus A. A. O. N. M. Shrine of Albany,
N. Y.

Mr. Jagger was first married in 1861. He had five children, of which two are
living, Edward Jagger in England, and Harry Jagger in Rifton.

He was married the second time to Mrs. Henry Ritter on May 8, 1899, and has
resided at Rifton for twenty years. He has several patents appertaining to the
carpet industry. The first was with his employer, Mr. Joseph Naylor of Kidder-
minster, England, for a power ingrain loom. This patent was in the joint names
of Joseph Naylor and Joseph Jagger and was patented in 1873. Mr. Jagger was in
their employ for eight years and his patent interest reverted to them upon his
leaving to engage with the A. T. Stewart Company. Being of a mechanical nature,
he patented a velour carpet weave, an Axminster weave and applied for one on
a new weave for heavy ingrain; the latter did not mature. Recently Mr. J. W.
Dimick and himself were granted joint patents on art squares velvet rugs and a
weave in velvet rugs, both of which they are using in the rugs they now make.

On December 27, 1906, Mr. Jagger married Miss Katherine Louise, eldest
daughter of the late Charles Frederick Edward Schubert, formerly Superintendent
of the A. T. Stewart Carpet Mills at Glenham, N. Y.

FRANK KEATOR, M. D., Kingston, N. Y., was born at Accord, Ulster County,
in 1879. He is a son of Dr. Thomas O. and Sarah J. (Decker) Keator. After

630

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

finishing his studies at Kingston Academy, he entered the Albany Medical College,
from which he graduated in 1903. He was appointed resident senior physician and
surgeon of the Albany Hospital, where he remained one year.

Dr. Keator is a member of the Ulster County Medical Society and has acquired
an extensive practice in Kingston and vicinity. In 1906 he married Jessie Helen
Laing of Albany.

GEORGE G. KEELER, late of Ellenville, was born in the old homestead in Dela-
ware County, N. Y., March 8, 1839. He attended the District School near his
home until twenty-one years of age, and then studied for three terms at Roxbury,
and one term at Franklin, Delaware County. He taught school for some time at
Margaretville and Roxbury, Delaware County, and Clintondale, Ulster County.
Afterwards he read law with A. C. Cowles of Roxbury, and Abraham Becker of
South Worcester, Otsego County. In the fall of 1863, he entered the Albany Law
School and in December of the same year was admitted to the bar. In March,
1864, he came to Ellenville, and formed a partnership with John Lyon in the law
business, which continued four years, after which Mr. Keeler practiced alone until
his brother James joined him on February 7, 1885. Mr. Keeler married Miss Annie
E. Gough, daughter of Dr. John Manliff Gough, at that time a prominent physician
at Cornwall-on-the-Hudson. Both Mr. Keeler and his wife were orthodox Friends
in faith, but have contributed to the support of local churches. They have had one
daughter, Sarah G., who married V. B. Thomas in 1898. Mr. Keeler was a director
and attorney for the First National Bank of Ellenville for about thirty years, and
attorney for the Ellenville Savings Bank twenty-five years. He held the office of
Village Attorney, and was Police Justice three years.

James B. Keeler, brother and law partner of George G. Keeler, was a resident
of Ellenville, up to the time of his death, March 19, 1905. He was born in the
township of Kortwright, Delaware County, N. Y., in October, 1844, He read law
with his brother in Ellenville, and was admitted to the Bar in 1878. He was for
a time Town Clerk, and also served as Justice of the Peace and as Postmaster of
Ellenville during President Cleveland’s first administration. He was also trustee
and vice-president of the Ellenville Savings Bank for four years, and a member
of the Board of Education. H. W. Coons became a law partner of George G.’
Keeler, April i, 1905, succeeding James B. Keeler.

George G. Keeler departed this life November 10, 1906. In his death the village
of Ellenville lost an upright and conscientious citizen, devoted to the interests of the
town, and the Bar of the county lost a vigorous and a brilliant member.

HENRY T. KEENEY, son of Thomas B. and Etta F. (Thompson) Keeney, was
born in Saugerties, New York in 1875. After completing his studies in the Academy
of his native place, he entered the employ of the Saugerties Bank in the capacity of

BIOGRAPHICAL. 631

Correspondence Clerk and was subsequently promoted to the position of teller,
which he now occupies.

Mr. Keeney occupies a prominent place in business and social circles, is a member
of the Saugerties Club, and in politics is a Democrat. In 1897 he was joined in
marriage with Miss May Adams and they have two daughters, Beatrice A. and
Frances E.

HENRY KELDER, son of John H. and Maria (Smith) Kelder, was born in the
town of Rochester, Ulster County, N. Y., December 17, 1838. While a lad he
moved with his parents to Kingston, where he obtained his education at the public
schools. In 1867 he established his livery stable, continuing in the business until
the time of his death, October 3, 1905. His reputation for conducting the foremost
livery in Kingston, extended throughout the county.

Mr. Kelder married Miss Sarah Jane Perrine, who with five sons and four
daughters survive. Guy, the youngest son, continues the business in the interest
of his mother.

FRED E. KELSEY, Vice-President and Manager of the Lopez-Grau Co. of
Kingston, was born in Hartford, Conn., in 1845, where he obtained his education.
His father was a tobacco grower in Connecticut, and from his boyhood days Mr.
Kelsey has been connected with the tobacco business, spending fifteen years in
Cleveland and ten years in New York City previous to his arrival in Kingston in
1894, when he became manager of the Powell, Smith Co., with whom he remained
until February, 1902, when the plant was sold to the American Tobacco Co. In
March, 1903, Mr. Kelsey established the Lopez-Grau Co., and began the manufacture
of clear Havana cigars. The business has developed rapidly, and is now numbered
among. Kingston’s leading industries, the annual output exceeding three million
high-grade cigars and the establishment gives employment to one hundred and fifty
hands. Mr. Kelsey’s family consists of his wife and daughter Ruth, four years of
age. He is a son of Edward and Harriet (Bull) Kelsey, of Hartford, Conn.

DAVID KENNEDY, M. D., who for over thirty years was closely identified
with the interests of Rondout, City of Kingston, New York, was a physician whose
name is dear to many, both as a skilful and respected practitioner and as a personal
friend. He was born in New York City, April 20, 1832, and when nine years of
age was taken by his parents to Roxbury, New York, where he spent his youth, re-
ceiving his education in the district schools, supplemented by attendance at a
private school known as Beechwood Seminary. When only ten years of age he
became a United States mail-carrier between Roxbury and what is now Aikville,
making the thirteen-mile trip tri-weekly on horseback. When nineteen years of
age he further exhibited that self-reliant and resolute spirit which characterized his

632

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

entire life. He was greatly impressed with the idea that the new El Dorado of
California offered superior inducements to young men of perseverance and energy,
and he resolved to go to the new country.

David and his elder brother, therefore, sailed from New York for Aspinwall in
1851, the passengers numbering about three hundred, all bound for the same gold
country. After reaching Aspinwall they were compelled to pole their way up the
Chagres River to Gargona, and from there walk to Panama City, the entire trip
being one of great hardship, danger and privation. They were forced to remain
at Panama City forty days, until a sailing vessel, of inferior class, could be placed
in a seaworthy condition, to take the party to San Francisco. During the seventy-
two long days of the voyage there was intense suffering caused by the extreme
scarcity of food and water. Fever broke out, attacking nearly everyone on board,
and by the time they reached San Francisco over half of the party had died and the
survivors were in a most destitute and weakened condition. Young Kennedy man-
aged to reach Nevada City, and with a pick and shovel began his work in the gold
placer camps. Success finally rewarded his many struggles and in about eighteen
months later he returned to his Eastern home, but after a short visit he again turned
westward. He remained in Nevada City another year and then went to San Fran-
cisco, where he had decided to study medicine.

He began his studies by matriculating in the medical department of the Pacific
University, taking a preliminary and regular course, after which he returned to
New York and entered the College of Physicians and Surgeons (now a part of
Columbia University), where he was graduated in the Class of i860. He entered
upon the active practice of his profession in Schenectady, N. Y., and established a
successful practice. On the outbreak of the Civil War he offered his services to the
government, and was appointed acting assistant surgeon, and assigned to the Nine-
teenth Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. He participated in the second battle of
Bull Run, and in those of Slaughter Mountain and Antietam. After the last named
engagement he was ordered to duty at Fortress Monroe, receiving the appointment
of president of the examining board for the deportation of soldiers. His duties
called him from Fortress Monroe to Portsmouth and Norfolk, and finally to the
Satterlee United States General Hospital in West Philadelphia, where he was made
president of the examining board and consulting surgeon, remaining there until
the close of the war in 1865. No important operation at this hospital could be
performed without Dr. Kennedy’s consent, and many of the most delicate opera-
tions he performed himself.

On returning to civil life Dr. Kennedy decided to settle in Titusville, Pennsyl-
vania, where he engaged in the practice of his profession. The “oil fever” was
then at its height, and Dr. Kennedy invested in oil lands, a venture that proved
profitable and from which, with that foresight which was one of his most prominent
characteristics, he retired before the crash came. The year 1870 found him settled
in Rondout, N. Y. (now a part of the city of Kingston), engaged in a large practice.

BIOGRAPHICAL.

633

and recogni2ed both by his patients and professional brethren as a skilful, successful
and conscientious physician and surgeon. He became a member of the Ulster
County Medical Association and other scientific and medical societies. It was at
this period that, owing to the popularity to which some of his prescriptions had
attained, he was led to the preparation of the remedies which by reason of their
merit have made his name known throughout the land. The business has grown
from a small beginning to its present immense proportions, and his “Favorite
Remedy” and various other well-known preparations are in demand everywhere.

Notwithstanding the absorbing nature of Dr. Kennedy’s professional duties, he
took an unfailing and active interest in public affairs, and was recognized by his
townsmen as a leader and a pov/er for truth and right. He was twice elected
Mayor of Kingston, and at the time of Cleveland’s first election to the Presidency,
Dr. Kennedy filled the office of presidential elector, and was designated by the New
York electors to convey the result of the vote to Washington. He was prominently
connected with financial institutions and business enterprises, and in these as in all
nis other undertakings his name was a synonym for honor and integrity. Dr.
Kennedy married, in 1868, Miss Eliza B. Gilbert of Stamford, Delaware County,
New York, and was the father of two sons and two daughters, Gilbert F., David,
Anna McPherson and Adelaide.

In the sudden death of Dr. Kennedy, on August 5, 1901, while taking an active
part in a matter of public interest, hundreds of friends felt that they had sustained
a personal loss. Aside from his unblemished public professional life, there is
another and a greater phase that no mere biographical sketch of dates and achieve-
ments can cover. There was nothing of the Pharisee in Dr. Kennedy’s nature;
boasting and display were repugnant to him. Ever ready to impart wise counsel
when sought, he was equally ready with that more immediate and tangible aid that
so many mere givers of good advice withhold. And of these multitudinous acts of
generosity only the recipients ever told. A hater of shams. Dr. Kennedy was fearless
in advocating that which seemed right. With him acts, not words, counted. It was
by their acts that he gauged men. It was by his acts that those who experienced his
kindness gauged him. Quietly, without hope of material reward, actuated only by
love of doing good, Dr. Kennedy dealt with his fellow-man, and many a life was
saved from wreck by his kindly and timely aid.

JAY E. KLOCK, editor and publisher of The Kingston Freeman, was born
February 14, 1864, in Hammond, St. Lawrence County, N. Y,, but the greater part
of his boyhood was spent in Albany County. His education was derived principally
from private tutors, although he spent a limited time at common school and attended
the Albany .Academy. Before attaining his majority he was employed upon news-
papers in Mechanicsville and Ogdensburg. In 1885 he was engaged as proofreader
upon the Albany Evening Journal, and was soon promoted to the position of tele-

634

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

graph editor. In 1887 he left the Journal and purchased the Signal, a newspaper in
Ogdensburg, but a year later sold that business and resumed his connection with the
Albany Journal, for which he became an editorial writer. In 1889 he purchased a
controlling interest in the Evening Times of Little Falls, N. Y., and after remaining
there two years sold his interest and removed to Kingston, becoming publisher and
#»ditor of the Freeman. In October, 1891, Mr. Klock married Miss Ina G. Chilson
of Macedon, N. Y.

JOHN E. KRAFT, publisher of the Kingston Leader, was born in Kingston,
May 7, 1853, and is a son of John Kraft, who as a young man, emigrated from
Germany and shortly after arriving in America, settled in Kingston. John E.
Kraft obtained his education in the schools of Kingston. He learned the printing
trade in the office of the Kingston Press, and later was employed on the Rondout
Freeman, at one time being its business manager.

Mr. Kraft was elected Clerk of the Board of Supervisors seven times, and while
serving as such he read law with Judge Alton B. Parker, and assisted that eminent
jurist in important litigations.

Before admission to the Bar, Mr. Kraft, with John W. Searing, purchased the
Leader establishment, and continued the publication of the Daily and Weekly
Leader, being the organ of the Democratic party of the city of Kingston and
County of Ulster. Mr. Kraft is still the principal owner of the newspaper.

Mr. Kraft has been the presiding officer in the different orders of the Masonic
fraternity, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias. He
is also a member of Mecca Temple of the Mystic Shrine, the Order of Elks, the
Kingston and Twaalfskill Clubs and the Tilden Club of New York City.

Before the Twentieth Battalion was disbanded, he was for a number of years
Captain of Company H, of that command, which did effective service in several
riots and railroad strikes.

Mr. Kraft was the first president of the Kingston City Hospital Association, and
is one of the trustees and second vice-president of the Kingston Savings Bank. He
has represented his ward in the Common Council as an Alderman, and was elected
Mayor of the city in 1890 — the youngest man who ever held the position. During
his incumbency of that office he instituted many reforms. He personally conducted
raids on houses of ill-repute, besides reducing the tax rate to the lowest ever
known in the history of the city.

He is senior warden of the Mission Church of the Holy Cross, that does a very
large amount of work among the poor of the city; and has always taken an active
interest in everything pertaining to Kingston’s best interests.

He has for a long time been and now is the presiding officer of the Patrons of
Husbandry.

In politics Mr. Kraft is a strong Democrat, and has represented his district in
State and National Conventions, as well as on the State Committee. In 1901
Governor Odell appointed Mr. Kraft as the minority party member of the State
Civil Service Commission, primarily because of strong party affiliation.

BIOGRAPHICAL.

63s

HENRY F. KUHFELDT, Postmaster, Napanoch, was born in Ellenville, May 5,
1875. He attended the Ellenville schools and then entered the Journal office, where
he learned the trade of printing. He afterwards clerked for a time in a dry goods
store, and for several years was a bookkeeper, serving under George Deyo, when
Mr. Deyo was County Treasurer. In 1903 he established a coal business in Napa-
noch, and May i, 1906, received the appointment of Postmaster from President
Roosevelt. Mr. Kuhfeldt married Miss Anna Wilklow of Ellenville. He is identi-
fied with the Knights of Pythias, American Mechanics and Red Men.

JOHN A. KUHLMANN, brewer of Ellenville, was born in that village and has,
for many years, been identified with the business interests. His father, John
Kuhlmann, established the business there in 1855, in association with Jacob Kopf,
and conducted it up to the date of his death in 1898, with the assistance of his
sons. The business is now operated by John A., Joseph B. and Fred L. Kuhlmann,
and their trade extends throughout Sullivan, Ulster, Orange and Delaware Coun-
ties. John A. Kuhlmann is a member of the Knights of Pythias. His family con-
sists of wife and two children, Walter and Homer.

COL. H. DWIGHT LAFLIN, of Saugerties, was born in Blandford, Mass.,
February 12, 1830, his parents being Luther and Almira Laflin. At the age of
seven years, H. Dwight Laflin, with his parents came to Saugerties. He attended
the public schools of the village and later his education was augmented by a course
of study in the Boston Latin School and at Pittsfield, Mass., Gymnasium. Having
an ardent temperament, he entered into athletics and drills with much spirit. After
leaving school, Mr. Laflin became a clerk in a store at Hyde Park on-th e-Hudson.
Here he remained but a short time, and then went to St. Louis, where he accepted
a position in the Laflin, Smith & Boies Power Company and became a partner in
the concern. He went to Chicago, in which city he opened and assumed the man-
agement of a branch depot for the company. He returned to Saugerties in i860
and began a successful business career. He was shortly thereafter elected one of
the Village Directors and subsequently President of Saugerties. In the Fire De-
partment he was also prominent, being Chief Engineer for two years.

The Colonel’s military career began in St. Louis, when he joined the St. Louis
Grays, then under the command of Capt. John Knapp, of the St. Louis Republican.
Afterward in Chicago he became a member of the Chicago Light Guard, then in
command of Gen. Geo. B. McClelland. He was also a member of the famous
Ellsworth Zouaves, whose record as a drill company was never excelled. Col.
Laflin was a personal friend of Col. Ellsworth, and was chosen second officer of
the company. He was also a member of Gen. T. B. Gates’ staff.

It was his privilege to assist in firing the first gun from the top of the Tremont
House in Chicago, when Abraham Lincoln was nominated for the Presidency.

He was the Republican candidate for the Assembly in 1883, but was defeated by
158 majority, although it is still maintained that his opponent’s election was illegal.
The Colonel was married to Josephine Banker of Hyde Park, September 7, 1853.
They had one child, a daughter, who died at the age of ten years.

636

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

Col. Laflin has not only succeeded in impressing his name and record indelibly
on the hearts of the people of Saugerties, but throughout the States of New York
and Pennsylvania. In the latter State the people have honored him by naming a
town after him, and he is highly esteemed for goodfellowship and sterling integrity.

THE LAKWELAND. — On a mountain peak in the very heart of the Shawan-
gunks, and near the picturesque little village of Cragsmoor, with its stone chapel,
is located that delightful home — Lakweland. Its altitude of two thousand feet in-
sures a dry, even temperature, and exhilarating mountain breezes with the per-
fume of nearby pines, contribute their healthful, cooling influences. At the right is
Sam’s Point, a solid wall of rock nearly a mile long and many feet in height, made
famous through its Indian associations, an account of which appears elsewhere in
this volume. At the left across the narrow valley lies “Bear Hill,” beyond which
the mountain ranges stretch in silent grandeur.

Lakweland was established many years ago as a mountain hotel and in 1901
became the property of Thomas P. Brown, Jr., its present owner. Since purchasing
this place, Mr. Brown has made many important improvements in the buildings and
grounds. The house is steam heated with other modern conveniences, and is sur-
rounded on two sides by a wide piazza, one hundred and fifty feet in length.

Among the many places of interest in the vicinity is Lake Maritanza, a spring-fed
mountain lake, of great picturesque beauty, furnishing excellent fishing and boating.

DANIEL LAMB, one of Saugerties’s oldest and most successful merchants, was
born in Newburgh, New York, November 14, 1829. He came to Saugerties when
nineteen years of age and engaged with John Welch, with whom he remained until
1864, when together with a Mr. Kipp he established himself in the hardware busi-
ness. The firm of Lamb & Kipp continued, doing a prosperous business for nineteen
years, at the expiration of which time Mr. Lamb purchased his partner’s interest
and has since conducted it alone. This year (1906) makes the forty-second con-
secutive year that he has conducted business in the store wherein he is now located
at Saugerties. Mr. Lamb is now and has been for some years ably assisted in
business by his son, Charles H. Lamb, who has an interest in the business.

He married Ellen Hummel, a daughter of Charles M. Hummel, in 1859, and to
them were born five children, Annie (deceased), Charles H., Julia E., Arthur D.
and Gertrude M. Mr. Lamb has never accepted public office, giving his attention,
strictly to his business interests, and he is one of the most highly esteemed and re-
spected business mein of Saugerties.

GEORGE W. LAMENT, proprietor of the Big Indian Hotel, purchased that
property in 1893. It is one of the oldest hotels in that section of the Catskills,
having been built by William DuBois, at the time the Ulster and Delaware Railroad^
was under construction.

Mr. Lament is a member of various fraternal organizations, including the
Masons, Elks, Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias. In politics he is a Demo-
crat, a central committeeman and the political leader for the town of Shandaken..

BIOGRAPHICAL.

637

He is one of Shandaken’s most enterprising and highly respected citizens and has
held numerous town and county offices, having been a member of the County
Board of Supervisors three terms, and has served eight years each as Town Clerk
and Justice of the Peace. In 1906, Mr. Lament was nominated by the Democratic
party for the County Clerkship, but met defeat with the balance of the Democratic
Tticket.

CHARLES C. LANG is a son of Christian and Mary (Minor) Lang, natives of
Germany, who came to America in 1852 and settled in Rondout, where he follov/ed
his trade as a blacksmith. Charles was born, July i, 1858. After attending the
public schools he learned the cigar-maker’s trade. In 1876 he engaged in the retail
meat business in Rondout, which he continued until 1882, when he established his
present meat market in Wilbur.

Politically Mr. Lang is a Republican and has always been an active worker for
the success of his party. He has served three terms as Alderman of what is now
the Thirteenth Ward and two terms in the Board of Supervisors. In 1906 he
was appointed Alms Commissioner by Mayor Thompson under the new charter.
He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, Knights of Pythias and the I. O. O. F.

In 1884 Mr. Lang married Bertha Scharchu of Rondout, who died in 1896, leaving
four children. In 1900 he was re-married to Martha Jane Barnett of Wilbur, by
v/hom he had two children, both of whom are deceased. His father and mother
celebrated the fifty-first anniversary of their marriage October 16, 1906.

ALFRED P. LASHER of Saugerties was born at Coxsackie, July 9, 1855, and is
a son of John E. and Katharine Elizabeth Lasher, who came to Saugerties when
Alfred was a boy. After attending the village schools he finished his education at
Glens Falls and Hudson, completing the courses in both schools. When eighteen
years of age he entered the employ of Burhans & Brainard, the stone dealers, as a
clerk and later became shipping clerk for John Maxwell at Malden, a position which
he held for two years. In 1881 he formed a partnership with his father under the
name of John E. Lasher & Son, and they began furnishing the leading railroads
of the country with pine ties, this firm being the first one to introduce southern
ties in the Northern States. The firm continued until 1891, when the senior partner
withdrew and his son assumed complete control and continued the business until
1899, when he retired. Mr. Lasher has served Saugerties for four years as director,
one term as president, and has been a member of the County Central Committee for
several years. He has been a member of the Board of Education since its organiza-
tion, is President of the Free Public Library, and a director in the First National
Bank of Saugerties. He is an elder in the Reformed Church and a member of the
Exempt Firemen of Saugerties. He was for four years a director in the Ulster
County Savings Bank of Kingston. Mr. Lasher is a thirty-second degree Mason
and a member of Mecca Temple Shrine of New York City. He was united in
marriage to Mary M. Gillespy, on June 12, 1883, and has one child living, Jessie
Elizabeth, born in 1886. Two died, James, born in 1883, and Rowland, born in 1884.

638

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

In 1904, Alfred P. Lasher, erected and presented to the old soldiers a monument
in honor of his father, the late John E. Lasher.

ANTHONY H. LAWATSCH, manufacturer at Wilbur, has resided in Ulster
County since 1882. He spent three years at High Falls and some five years in
Gardiner, and has always been engaged in the milling business. In 1899 he removed
to Wilbur and purchased his present grist-mill. In 1906 he established the Lawatch
& Lotz Brick Co., with a daily capacity of from 25,000 to 50,000 brick, giving em-
ployment to upwards of fifty men.

Mr. Lawatch is a Republican. He has served as excise commissioner and was a
member of the Town Board during his residence in Gardiner. He is a member
of the I. O. O. F. and of the Kingston Board of Trade. He married Miss Clara
Schmidt, by whom he has one son, Emil H. Mr. Lawatch is a native of Austria,
and after attending the military school was appointed a guard to the Crown Prince
of that country.

BENJAMIN F. LAWRENCE, Manager of the Kingston plant of Millen, Aiken-
head & Co., was born in New York in 1854. He has been connected with this firm
for twenty-five years, and has been a resident of Kingston since 1892, when he was
given sole charge of their establishment. The firm consists of Edmond Milen, T. W.
and H. A. Aikenhead, manufacturers of nightshirts and pajamas. The building
which they erected is a brick structure 40 x 100 feet, containing three stories. The
establishment produces one hundred and fifty finished garments daily and furnishes
employment to one hundred and thirty-five hands. It is well equipped with modern
machinery, and under the able management of Mr. Lawrence has become one of
Kingston’s most thriving industries.

Since becoming a resident of Ulster, Mr. Lawrence has taken an active interest in
political campaigns, and has served as delegate to the Republican County Conven-
tion from the Tenth Ward.

ABSALOM ANDERSON LAWTON, M. D., was born at Kingston, N. Y., July
14, 1881. His father, the late Hon. William Lawton, ex-Judge of Ulster County,
was born at New Baltimore, Greene County, N. Y., June 5, 1829. He was the only
son of Oliver and Hannah Hope Lawton, who came from England in 1828 and
located on a farm near New Baltimore. When he was ten years of age his parents
removed to Livingston, Columbia County, where he obtained the rudiments of his
education. He later pursued his studies at the Hudson River Academy, at Stock-
port, and at the old Hudson Academy. He then taught school at Livingston and
Taughannock during which time he took up the study of law, continuing the same
while conducting a school at Johnstown, N. Y. When twenty-one years of age
he entered the law office of Darius Peck, of Hudson, with whom he studied two
years and then continued his studies in the office of Judge Theodore Miller, who
afterwards became one of the Judges in the Court of Appeals of New York State.
In 1852 he was admitted to the bar and during the following year acted as managing
clerk in the office of Judge Miller. In 1853 he came to Rondout and opened a law

BIOGRAPHICAL.

639

office, and the year following, the once famous law firm of Lawton & Stebbins was
formed. This partnership extended over a period of forty years and was dissolved
by the death of Judge Lawton, the senior member of the firm. This firm had a large
clientage, both private and with corporations. Judge Lawton became one of the
foremost men in the Republican party of Ulster County, and many honors, unsought,
were thrust upon him. He was one of the twelve men who organized the Republican
party in Ulster County, and for many years served the village of Kingston as its
clerk. In 1871 he was elected County Judge and in 1877 was unanimously re-
nominated and elected to that office.

He always took a deep interest in educational matters, and while serving aS
trustee of the Kingston schools he organized the academic department of the school,
now known as the Ulster Academy. He served as trustee and chairman of the
board for many years. Judge Lawton was also greatly interested in the industrial
development of the county, and in 1879 was one of the organizers of a manufacturing
company that erected a large plant near the West Shore tracks and employed
several hundred people. For many years he served as director of the First National
Bank, of Rondout, and trustee of the Rondout Savings Bank, and at the time of
his death he held the office of vice-president of the Ulster County Savings Bank.
He married Frances Louisa Stevens, April 20, 1859, and four children were born
to them, Harriet Hope and Mary, who both died in infancy, and William and
George L. Mrs. Lawton died January 29, 1875. On October 12, 1880, he was
joined in marriage with Kate, a daughter of the late Capt. Absalom Anderson. In
1886 he took up his residence at “Fairview,” where he remained until his death on
August 8, 1893, at the age of sixty-four years. In the death of Judge Lawton the
Bar of Ulster County lost one of its most able and brilliant members, one whd both
as attorney and as Judge, had proved himself possessed of those qualities which
make for success in judicial life.

Dr. Absalom Anderson Lawton received his preliminary education at- the Kingston
schools and Vermont Academy at Saxton’s River, after which he pursued his
studies in Cornell University and Baldwin University, Ohio. He then entered the
Cleveland Homeopathic Medical College, which was followed by a three-years’
course in the Baltimore Medical College, from which he graduated in 1906. A
year in the Maryland General Hospital at Baltimore, followed by a post-graduate
course in the New York Medical College completed his preparations for a career
in medicine and surgery. He then opened an office at his home in the town of
Lsopus. Dr. Lawton began the practise of medicine under favorable circumstances,
having an excellent college education and a thorough medical and surgical training
combined with a natural aptitude and love for the work, and his constantly increas-
ing practice bears testimony to his skill and ability, and indicates a future for him,
in his chosen profession, approaching, if not equaling, his father’s career at the
bench and bar.

Dr. Lawton’s residence, “Fairview,” with its spacious lawns, overlooking the

640

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

Hudson, situated some thre^e miles south of the city of Kingston, makes an ideal
home. And here with his wife, formerly Miss Clare J. Belt, of Baltimore, Md., he
passes the summer months and practices his profession.

CORNELIUS I. LeFEVRE, Rosendale, N. Y., a lineal descendant of one of the
twelve patentees of New Paltz, was born at Bloomingdale, Ulster County, October
II, 1850. He was educated in the local public schools, and Eastman’s Business
College of Poughkeepsie, which was supplemented by liberal reading and observa-
tion until he has become recognized as one of the best-informed men in the county,
especially in historical and antequarian research. Mr. LeFevre began an active busi-
ness career by engaging with the First National Bank of Kingston, in a clerical
capacity, afterwards engaging with J. O. Merritt & Co. In 1878 in association with
his cousin, Rufus LeFevre, he established a lumber and coal business in Rosendale,
which they still conduct under the firm name of R. & C. I. LeFevre. They handle
lumber and building material, coal, flour, feed and grain, at wholesale and retail,
and have extensive yards and warehouses in the village of Rosendale. Mr. LeFevre
ran for the office of Supervisor in 1879 and was elected by over one hundred and
fifty majority upon the Republican ticket in a Democratic stronghold. He has
since absolutely declined public office. Mr. LeFevre resides at Bloomington upon
his farm, where he is most pleasantly situated.

DR. W. E. EUSTACE LITTLE, Supervisor of the town of Rosendale, was
born in Ogdensburg, N. Y. He obtained his preliminary education at the Ottawa
Collegiate Institute, Ottawa, Canada, where he remained some fifteen years. He
studied medicine at Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, the Burlington (Vt.)
Medical College and the Baltimore College of Physicians and Surgeons, from
which he received the degree of M. D. in 1884. He resides in the village of Bloom-
ington and enjoys an extensive practice. He is identified with the County and
State Medical Societies and the American Medical Association. He held the office
of Health Officer and County Coroner for several years, and has served as Super-
visor ten years, being continuously re-elected since 1896.

Socially, Dr. Little is a member of the Masonic Order, the Elks, Odd Fellows,
Knights of Pythias and Foresters. In 1886 he was united in marriage to Miss Anna
S. Royston. Five children have been born to them, W. E. Eustace, Jr., Royston,
Margaret, Percy and Hester Josephine.

CHARLES O. LIVINGSTON, whose ancestry in America dates back to Robert
Livingston, who arrived here from England in 1696, was born in Barrytown,
Dutchess County, N. Y., and has been engaged in farming and fruit growing in
Ulster County since i860. Mr. Livingston’s estate is beautifully situated on the
bank of the Hudson in Ulster township and comprises over one hundred acres. He
is a member of St. John’s Episcopal Church, Kingston, and in politics a Democrat.

He was united in marriage to Miss Sarah Elizabeth Ramsay of New York. They
have two sons, Charles Victor and Robert R., graduates respectively of Lehigh
and Cornell Universities.

BIOGRAPHICAL.

641

F. W. LOERZEL, a well-known business man of Saugerties, in which place he
was born March 31, 1861, and in which he has spent his life thus far, is of German
descent. He is a son of Lorenz and Magdalena (Flack) Loerzel. His father Lorenz
Loerzel was in life much esteemed and his death was sincerely mourned. He died
September 16, 1878, leaving two sons, Frank W. and M. P. L. Loerzel.

Frank W. attended the public school in Saugerties. He received his first instruc-
tion in both vocal and instrumental music from his parents, both of whom excelled
in this art, and further pursued his studies in Rondout and Poughkeepsie until he
was twenty-one years of age, during that time studying the pipe organ and harmony.
On his return to Saugerties in i888 he began teaching music and eventually suc-
ceeded his father as organist in St. Mary’s Catholic Church. He was engaged thus
for twenty-five years and in 1892 engaged in the wholesale liquor business with his
brother under the firm name of Loerzel Bros.

Frank W. Loerzel was married October 10, 1888, to Miss Louise Cowell of
Albany, N. Y., and to them have been born three children, Julia Magdalena, Mar-
guerite C. and Lorenz F. His brother, M. P. L. Loerzel, a fine musician, was mar-
ried to Miss Helen C. Dixon of Saugerties, and died September 24, 1900.

BERNARD LOUGHRAN, who for many years was prominently identified with
business and public affairs of Kingston, was born in Ireland in 1851, and came to
America in 1867. He learned the plumber’s trade in New York city, and in 1878
located in Kingston, N. Y,, where he engaged in business for himself, meeting with
success and becoming widely known throughout this section of the State. Mr.
Loughran installed the plumbing in many of this city’s public buildings, notably the
First Dutch Church, the County Court House and the City Hall. Mr. Loughran
was a director of the State of New York National Bank, and a member of the
Board of Education since 1901. He was for many years President of the Kingston
Plumbing Board, and always took an active interest in all matters that promoted
the city’s welfare.

Mr. Loughran’s death occurred September 29, 1906. His wife, who was Miss
Margaret Coffey, died in 1904; three sons and one daughter survive. His eldest
son, Edward, continues the business so successfully conducted by his father.

DR. ELBERT H. LOUGHRAN.— -Prominent among the physicians of Ulster
County is the subject of this sketch. Born at Ashland, Greene County, March 17,
1852, Dr. Loughran obtained his preliminary education at Fishkill, and at the age
of eighteen came to Kingston, where he studied medicine in the office of his uncle,
Dr. Robert Loughran, later entering Bellevue Medical College, where he graduated
in 1873. He has practiced continuously in Kingston since 1875, and is at present
attending physician of Kingston City Hospital, the Benedictine Sanitarium, and has
been city physician for twenty-three years. Dr. Loughran is a member of the
County and State Medical Societies, the Masons, Knights Templar, and Ronaout
Commandery. He is a director in the Kingston National Bank and the Ulster
County Savings Institution.

642

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

In 1878 he was married to Jessie F. Hall, of Elizabeth, N. J., and three children
have been born to them: Elbert Du Bois, Margaret and Roger Hall. Dr. Lough-
ran has been highly successful in his practice, and has surrounded himself with
a host of warm friends by whom he is held in the highest esteem.

SAMUEL B. LOW, son of Cornelius and Jane M. (Burhans) Low, was born
in the town of Wawarsing in 1856. Mr. Low has been engaged in the fire insur-
ance and real estate business in Ellenville since 1885, achieving an unusual degree
of success. He is trustee of the Ulster County Agricultural Society and trustee of
the Ellenville Cemetery Association. He is affiliated with Wawarsing Lodge No.
582, F. & A. M., and Awasting Lodge, K. of P., of Ellenville. He has been a
member of the Reformed Church of Napanoch for upwards of thirty years and
an officer in the church for over twelve years.

In 1878 he was united in marriage to Miss Alice H. Gray, daughter of John G.
Gray, a prominent lawyer and highly respected citizen of Ellenville, who died April
20, 1903.

HAMBLIN B. MABEN, M. D., of Kingston, N. Y., was born at Halcott, Greene
County, N. Y., March 27, 1833. He is a son of Benjamin and Diadama Maben.
Benjamin Maben was of Scotch descent and his wife French. Benjamin Maben
died when forty-two years of age.

Dr. Maben was six years of age at the time of his father’s death, and was placed
in a private school at Lysander, Onondaga County, N. Y. At the age of eleven he
began supporting himself and during the winter months attended District School.
He afterward taught school winters and attended the old Binghamton Academy
and the Hedding Literary Institute, Greene County, through the fall and spring
terms. When twenty-one years of age he took up the study of medicine with
Hon. O. M. Allaben, M. D., of Margaretville, Delaware County, and graduated
from the Albany Medical College three years later.

He opened an office in Ilion, N. Y., where he subsequently attained to a very
large practice. In 1864 he acted as army surgeon in the Davids Island Hospital. In
1883 he took a special course in gynecology at the New York Post-Graduate School
since which time his practise has been principally along the lines of women’s
diseases. On June 15, 1885, he removed to Kingston and soon became one of the
foremost physicians of eastern New York, acquiring as a specialist an unusually
large patronage. While in Ilion he dealt largely in real estate and was actively
identified with many of its business interests.

Dr. Maben is a Democrat in politics and has held various public offices. He was
a member of the Board of Education, village Trustee and Supervisor of the town
of German Flats. He was twice the Democratic nominee for Member of Assembly.
He has been a member of the Broome County Medical Society, the Oneida County
Medical Society and the Herkimer County Medical Society.

He has been a delegate to the State Medical Society and American Medical
Association. He has served as President of the Physicians Association of Kingston
and the Alumni Association of the Albany Medical College, 1898.

BIOGRAPHICAL.

643

Dr. Maben was first married to Miss Carrie Lott, of Binghamton, who died in
1874 leaving one son, William S. He took for his second wife, in 1876, Miss
Jeanette C. Winslow, daughter of the late Hon, John Winslow, of Watertown,
N. Y. She died September 25, 1898. His present wife was Miss Jennie McKinley-
Wood of Kingston, whom he married January 8, 1903.

The late William S. Maben, M. D., was born January 6, 1862, He was a graduate
of Hamilton College, studied medicine with his father, and, when twenty-five years
of age, graduated from the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Baltimore, Md. He
engaged in practise in his father’s office, where he continued until his death, Janu-
ary 15, 1891. He was married in 1886 to Annie E. Mayor, of Bellows Falls, Vt.,
and to them was born one child, a daughter, Elizabeth,

ELBERT F. MacFADDEN, vice-president, treasurer and general manager of
The L. B. Van Wagenen Company, of Kingston, was born in Cambridge, N. Y,,
and is a son of Tristam F. and Evaline (Luce) MacFadden. After finishing his
studies at the academy of his native place, Mr. MacFadden entered the employ
of Jerome B. Rice, the famous seedsman, where he remained six years as ac-
countant. In 1900 he came to Kingston and became associated with the drygoods
firm of which he is now an officer. Mr. MacFadden is identified with the Masonic
Fraternity, a member of the Rondout Presbyterian Church, director in the Y. M.

C. A., and a member of the Kingston Club.

In 1900 he was united in marriage to Mabel C., daughter of the late L. B. Van
Wagenen, They have two children, Louis Franklin and Donald Schoonmaker.

JOSEPH C. MASON was born in Saugerties in 1872, where, at the public
schools, he obtained his education. He then worked for three years at Quarry-
ville, N. Y., for John H. Gray, and in 1889 located in Pine Hill, engaging with B.

D. Hulburt, with whom he remained ten years. In 1900 he purchased the block
where his store is now located and engaged in the manufacture of wood souvenir
novelties, which find a ready market throughout the Catskills.

Mr. Mason has served as Collector and Trustee of the village of Pine Hill. In
1903 he was united in marriage to Miss Elizabeth Winter and they have one son,
Albert.

DELANCY N. MATTHEWS, president of the State of New York National Bank,
was born at Olive, Ulster County, in 1849. In 1862 he moved with his parents to
Brooklyn, New York, where he completed his education in the schools of that city.
Returning to his native place in 1866, he remained on the farm about a year when
he opened a general country store, and in 1871 engaged in the same business at
West Shokan, under the firm name of Matthews & North, which they have since
owned and operated. He is also vice-president of the wholesale grocery firm of
Matthews & Harrison, of Kingston, and trustee of the Kingston Savings Bank.
Politically he is a Republican and has served two terms as Supervisor.

Mr. Matthews is a member of Kingston Lodge No. 10, F. & A. M., and of the K.
of P. He has been twice married; his first wife was Sarah M. Dart, whom he

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

644

married in 1870. In 1901 he was married to Carrie E. Smith, of Oneida County. He
is the son of Egbert R. and Sarah E. (North) Mathews, natives of Ulster County.
Our subject is a man of public spirit, devoted to the welfare and progress of the
county, and in whom its citizens repose the utmost confidence and esteem.

ALBERT MAUTERSTOCK, contractor and builder, of Kingston, N. Y., was
born in Rondout, February 10, 1851. He attended the schools of Rondout and
Kingston Academy and then learned the carpenters’ trade. In 1872 he began busi-
ness for himself on Holmes (now McEntee) Street, where he remained eight years
and then removed to his present quarters on Broadway. He is engaged in the
manufacture of mouldings, fancy woodwork, etc., and has an extensive building
trade. Among the notable structures he has planned and erected may be mentioned
the Court House, Burgevin Building, No. 3 School, Stock and Cordts’ furniture
store, John N. Cordts’ store, corner of Strand and Hasbrouck Avenue; McMillan
and Hales’ store, pavilion and band stand at Kingston Point, and the residence and
buildings of Francis H. Leggett at Stone Ridge. In 1905 he opened a general in-
surance agency in connection with his other business. Mr. Mauterstock is now
serving as city assessor. He is a member of Rondout Lodge No. 343, F. & A. M.,
a charter member of the Y. M. C. A., and was for many years one of its board of
directors.

He married Joanna F. Cotting at Rhinebeck, Dutchess County, N. Y., January
13, 1883. They have three children, Jennie A., Elizabeth C. and Ethel. The family
are members of Trinity M. E. Church, of which Mr. Mauterstock has served as
steward and district steward for over thirty years, and trustee of the Kingston
District since its organization. He is also a member of the Board of Conference
Sessions of the New York Conference.

Mr. Mauterstock’s ancestors emigrated to Ulster Cbunty from the Palatine dis-
trict, on the Rhine, in 1716. His father, Levi Mauterstock, was born in Katsbaan,
Ulster County, March 30, 1816, and died in 1873. He learned the carpenter trade
at Saugerties and worked at ship and house building until his death. His wife
died in 1892. His father, Jacob, was born in the old homestead at Katsbaan, which
property was granted to the Mauterstock family in 1723 by the King of England.

DAVID MAXWELL, Supervisor of the town of Saugerties, is a native of that
village. He was born July 8, 1863, attended the local schools and early in life be-
came interested in the bluestone business. He is a nephew of the late John Max-
well, who in his day was the most extensive operator in blue.stone in this county.
Mr. Maxwell is financially interested in and supervises the bluestone business
inaugurated by John Maxwell’s Sons. He has extensive yards across the lower
Esopus, where a very heavy stock of’ bluestone is stored ready for shipment,
either by boat or rail. He keeps a large number of hands busy dressing and
handling this commodity. Mr. Maxwell is a member of the F. and A. M., and has
served his town as Supervisor four terms. He is a staunch Republican in politics
and wields considerable influence in Republican circles. Mr. Maxwell’s family
consists of wife and sons, Walter, Leslie and Stewart.

BIOGRAPHICAL.

64s

JAMES T. MAXWELL, capitalist, of Saugerties, N. Y., is the eldest son of the
late John Maxwell, who with his parents settled in Philadelphia in 1827, and a
grandson of Thomas Maxwell, a soldier of the British Army under Sir John Moore
and the Duke of Wellington, who were engaged in the Spanish Campaign, and he
was with Wellington at the Battle of Waterloo. For meritorious conduct and
bravery on the battlefield in that great fight, Thomas Maxwell received a medal
which is now in the possession of our subject. James T. Maxwell’s father was one
of the most progressive business men of his day. He was very extensively en-
gaged in the bluestone industry, employed about eight hundred men, and during
the summer months his pay-roll at Malden alone amounted to some three thousand
dollars weekly. Pie maintained wholesale departments at Rochester, N. Y. ; New-
ark, N. J. ; Philadelphia, Pa., and at Malden. He was a staunch Republican and a
Member of Assembly in 1867. In 1877 he was nominated for Congress against
D. M. DeWitt and defeated by only seventeen votes. He died in 1885, universally
mourned by all classes, who felt that in the death of Mr. Maxwell they had lost a
sincere friend, and many of them a benefactor.

James T. Maxwell succeeded his father in the conduct of the large interests which
came into his possession upon the latter’s death. He has not, however, confined his
operations alone to the bluestone industry, but has identified himself with many
of Saugerties’ most important industrial and fiduciary institutions, in which he has
become an important factor.

His plant in Philadelphia, handling principally granite and cut stone, is fitted
with special machinery for the purpose and is one of the most important of the
kind in the country. Mr. Maxwell is heavily interested in the Saugerties and New
York steamboat line and also owns an interest in about fifteen coastline schooners.
He is also an extensive dealer in real estate. Plis family consists of wife, Mrs.
Charlotte A. (Haley) Maxwell, and three children, William L., John and James
T., Jr.

GIRARD L. McENTEE, of the City of Kingston, was born June 8, 1847, in the
old Mansion House, which stood on the site of the present hotel that bears that
name in Rondo ut.

James S. McEntee, a civil engineer, the father of Girard, was born in the west-
ern part of New York State in 1800, and about 1821 located in Kingston and be-
came one of its most enterprising citizens. He was associated with John B. Jervis,
chief engineer of the Erie and D. & H. Canal. He acquired considerable property
and at one time owned a large tract of land, embracing what is now Chestnut Hill.
He was for some years engaged in steamboating and towed coal from the D. & H.
Canal to New York City. He built all the docks in Rondout Creek for the D. &
H. Canal Company and also built the dock at West Point in 1855 when Robert E.
Lee was its superintendent. He ran stages from Rondout to Delhi and Ellenville,
and for a number of years owned the Mansion House of Rondout. In 1864 and
1865 he was chief engineer in the preliminary survey of the Rondout and Oswego
R. R., now the U. & D. His was a successful career, and his death, which occurred
in 1887, ended a long life of activity and usefulness. He had seven children,.

646

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

namely: Jervis, the celebrated American landscape artist; Mary; Augusta, wife of
Joseph Tompkins; Maurice W., an officer in the U. S. Navy, who was with Farra-
gut in Mobile Bay; Sara, who graduated in medicine; Lucy, wife of General John
N. Andrews, of the U. S. Army, who participated actively in the Civil and Cuban
Wars, and our subject, Girard L.

Girard J^. McEntee, when only thirteen years of age, enlisted in the 20th N. Y.
State Militia, and was stationed on the line between Baltimore and Washington.
After receiving his discharge he went to New York City and was employed in
a printing press manufactory until 1876, when he returned to Kingston and em-
barked in the insurance business, which he has since conducted.

He married Mary Isabella Nichols, of Kingston, and six children have been born
to them: Charles, died in 1903, aged 25 years; James S.; with the American Tobacco
Co. of N. Y. ; Girard L., Jr., a lieutenant in the U. S. Army, stationed in the Philip-
pine Islands; Dwight, connected with the First National Bank of Rondout; Flor-
ence and Jansen.

Mr. McEntee is a Republican in politics and has served as a member of the
County Board of Supervisors and as Alms Commissioner two terms. He is a
member of Kingston Lodge No. 10, F. & A. M., and is an exempt fireman.

JOHN L. McGRATH, of Phoenicia, was born in that village on the farm owned
by his father, the site of the railroad station being a portion of the original prop-
erty belonging to his parents. His birth took place February 26, 1845, and until he
was thirteen years of age he assisted his father on the farm, obtaining his educa-
tion in the public schools. He was then employed at different times by various
lumber firms. When twenty-six years of age he engaged in the mercantile and
bluestone business, which he has since carried on. From a small beginning his
business has grown to be extensive, and he has of recent years also added a livery
business to his other branches.

On November i, 1871, Mr. McGrath was married to Elizabeth, a daughter of
Nicholas Brown, and to them five children have been born: Mary Agnes, Theresa
E., John J., Rosa A., and William J.

The two eldest daughters were educated at St. Joseph’s Academy, Long Island,
and are graduates of that institution. Politically Mr. McGrath has always been a
staunch Democrat. He served as Supervisor of Shandaken township in 1891-92
and was postmaster from 1884 to 1888. He is also a director in the Ulster Savings
Bank.

HENRY E. McKENZIE was born in Brushland, Delaware County, N. Y., in
1852. At the age of five years he removed with his parents to Port Ewen, where
he attended the grammar and high schools. He then studied law in the office of
Reuben Bernard and the Albany Law School and was admitted to the bar in 1873.
He acted as managing clerk in the office of Bernard & Fiero until 1880, when he
opened an office in Port Ewen, where he has since practiced, holding the office of
Police Justice eight years and Justice of the Peace sixteen years. Mr. McKenzie

BIOGRAPHICAL. 647

has also served as Associate County Judge, Deputy County Clerk and Clerk of the
Surrogate’s Court.

Socially he is identified with the I. O. O. F., Knights of Pythias, Ex-State Coun-
cilor and State Council Secretary for seven years of the O. U. A. M., and Ex-
National Councilor of the Daughters of Liberty, Chairman of Board of Education
and Vice-President of Esopus Co-operative Fire Insurance Co,

In 1875 he was married to Miss Josephine Secor Beeres, who died in 1905.
Three sons, Kenneth Grant, Charles Beeres and Harold E,, were born to them, the
latter being the only one living. He is engaged in business in New York City.

ARCHIE McLaughlin, Ulster County’s Treasurer, is a native of New York
City, where he was born August 31, 1852. His grandfather, William McLaughlin,
was a native of Cailalis, County Antrim, Ireland. Thomas L. and Peter, both sons
of William, received an excellent education and both learned the profession of civil
engineering. In religious faith he was a strict Presbyterian and reared his family
in that faith. Thomas L. McLaughlin, the father of Archie, was born in Cailalis,
Ireland, and about the year 1848, when nineteen years of age, he came to America
and settled in New York City, while his brother, Peter, who accompanied him,
located in Vermont. Thomas was engaged in contracting for the New York
Cement Company while living in New York, and in 1857 he removed to South
Rondout, where he was engaged for the same company in getting out limestone.
Two years later he was placed in charge of their quarries at Lefever Falls and
shortly thereafter met with an accident that destroyed his sight. About 1851 he
was married to Sarah MacKinley, of New York City, and seven children were
born to them. He died in 1877 his wife in 1889.

Archie McLaughlin began work with the New York Cement Company at
eighteen cents a day, cutting linings for barrel heads. He was gradually advanced
until he became superintendent of the plant at Rosendale, which position he held
seventeen years. On January ist, 1901, he was appointed by Governor Odell to
the office of Treasurer of Ulster County, to fill the vacancy caused by the resigna-
tion of George Deyo, and the year following he was elected to that office and was
re-elected in 1905.

Mr. McLaughlin was married in 1871 to Mary McAllister, by whom he had two
children, Matthew and Mary. In 1878 Mrs. McLaughlin died, and in 1880 he was
joined in marriage with Amelia Dunbar, and eight children have been born to
them, as follows; Archie, Millie, Thomas, Frank (who died in infancy), Harry,
Mabel, Fred and Robert. Mr. McLaughlin is a member of Kingston Lodge No.
10, F. & A. M.

HENRY McNAMEE, of Eddyville, has been prominently identified with the
business and political affairs of Ulster County for many years. He was born at
Wurtsboro, Sullivan County, N. Y., August 24, 1854. He attended the public
schools of that place, and later St. Francis Xavier Academy in New York. At
the age of twenty-one he came to Eddyville as bookkeeper for Dimon & Kerin.
His business sagacity and enterprise soon manifested itself, and shortly there-

648

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

after he became a partner in the business. Mr. McNamee, like many others
who located on the I). & H. Canal, shared in its prosperity for many years and
likewise endured the loss consequent upon its decline and final abandonment.

In 1904, under the firm name of McNamee & Rice, he engaged in the contract-
ing business, in which they have been uniformly successful. Notable examples
of their work are the Waterworks at New Paltz, the State road from Kingston
to Ellenville and from Kingston to Rifton, paving of the Strand at Rondout,
the Hudson River Telephone Company’s underground conduits, underground
tunnel for Frederick W. Vanderbilt, Hyde Park, the Hurley and Saugerties
roads and various other roads leading into Kingston were constructed by them
under the auspices of the Ulster County Road Improvement Association.

Always an ardent Democrat, Mr. McNamee has served as Police Justice for
the town of Ulster, and was a member of the Board of Supervisors fourteen
years, serving as Chairman during three terms. In 1893 he was elected a mem-
ber of the State Assembly.

Energetic and reliable, Mr. McNamee is numbered among Ulster County’s
public-spirited and progressive business men.

JOHN McVEY. — The subject of this sketch has been a citizen of Kingston
for nearly half a century. He was born in Ireland in 1850 and at the age of ten
years came to America with his parents, who located at Rondout. John McVey
at once set out to earn a livelihood and took up the trade of gardener. He laid
out the grounds, planted trees and built greenhouses on Gen. H. A. Sampson’s
place, where he remained five years. He was then employed for three years
on the General Montgomery place. In 1870 he purchased his present property
on Flatbush Avenue, erecting extensive hothouses and has devoted his attention
continuously to the cultivation of plants and bulbs. His wife, who was Ellen
M. Cunningham, of Providence, R. I., died very suddenly Thanksgiving morn-
ing, November 24, 1904. Mr. McVey is without relatives in this country, but
his generous and sympathetic nature have won for him a host of friends. He
is president of the Veteran Firemen’s Association of Kingston.

WILLIAM S. MEAD, proprietor of Mead’s Hotel, is the pioneer among the
many famous hotel keepers in the Catskill Mountains. In 1864 George Mead,
the father of William, purchased one hundred acres of wild land on Overlook
slope in the mountains, about two miles from the present village of Woodstock,
and erected this hotel, which he conducted with the assistance of his son until his
death on March 25, 1905. The house is located on Overlook Mountain, two
thousand feet above the Hudson, and fifteen hundred feet above the village of
Woodstock, and commands a fine view of the mountains and valleys in every
direction. It accommodates one hundred guests. The house is supplied with
milk, butter and poultry from the farm.

William S. Mead was born in Kingston in 1862. With the idea in view of
perfecting himself as a hotel manager he spent several years in Hartford, Con-
necticut, at one of the large hotels, learning all branches of the business and

BIOGRAPHICAL.

649

mastering every detail. He married Anna Thomas, of Hartford, Connecticut,
and they have one daughter, Genevieve, who will graduate from the Hartford
High School in 1907. Mr. Mead holds the office of Deputy Warden of both
County and State League of American Sportsmen and is active in enforcing the
game laws of the State. Sherwood Mead, the grandfather of William, was a
native of Ridgefield, Connecticut, and at the time of his death in 1896 was the
oldest member of the Masonic order in that State, having joined that order in
1826.

GEORGE H. MERIKLE of Whiteport, N. Y., was born at Shokan, N. Y., Novem-
ber 8, 1858, and attended the district schools of his native place. In 1871 he went
to New York, and after spending four years in the schools of that city, entered the
employ of J. B. White & Co., leather manufacturers, with whom he remained until
1887, when he returned to Ulster County to accept the position of Superintendent of
William J. Turcks, lumber establishment, where he remained over fifteen years. He
then engaged in the clothing business for a time, but as that venture did not prove
profitable, he accepted the position in March, 1905, as Superintendent of the Heading
Mill of the Consolidated Rosendale Cement Company, at Whiteport, New York.

Mr. Merikle is an active worker in the Republican party, and served as Super-
visor of the first department of the City of Kingston from 1901 to 1903. Socially
he is a member of Franklin Lodge, and K. of P. He was united in marriage to
Lizzie S. Houghtaling of Hurley and they have two children, George Lewis and
Louise V.

PROFESSOR MYRON J. MICHAEL, A. B., A. M., son of Abraham and
Matilda (Peck) Michael, was born April 16, 1851, in Lasselsville, Fulton County,
New York. He attended the district schools and at the age of sixteen entered the
Clinton Liberal Institute at Clinton, N. Y., from which he graduated in 1871. Four
years later he graduated from Tufts College (Mass.) with the degree of A. B. He
then entered upon his career as an Instructor, which has proved so successful.
Teaching for a year at Esperance, Schoharie County, he resigned to become Prin-
cipal of the Union Free School at Palatine Bridge, N. Y., where he remained five
years. He then organized the school system at Chatham, New York, remaining
there until 1885, when he accepted the position as Superintendent of Schools at
Rome, N. Y. In 1893 he resigned to become President of the Faculty of the Clinton
Liberal Institute, and two years later came to Kingston to accept the position as
Principal of Kingston Academy.

During his twelve years’ service in Kingston he has been very active in fostering
all matters pertaining to educational advancement, notably his efforts in securing
the establishment of the City’s Public Library of which he is a Trustee and Secre-
tary of the Board. He has held the principalship of Kingston Academy, founded in
1774, for a longer term than any of his predecessors.

Mr. Michael is a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society. He has been President
of the Hudson River Schoolmasters’ Club and has always been active in the state
Educational organizations.

650

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

He married Miss Hattie N. Burton. Their elder son, Herbert L., a graduate from
Tufts College, is an engineer in the employ of the State on highway improvement
under the State Engineer and Surveyor, and their younger son, William W., is a
student in the engineering department of Tufts College.

JAMES MILLARD was born in England in 1833, where he learned the trade of
Mechanical Engineer. He came to America in 1857 and in 1858 located in Kingston,
where he has since resided. He was employed with James W. Baldwin until 1865,
when he embarked in business for himself. Although he began without capital, Mr.
Millard has achieved success in the industrial world as a sequence of earnest labor
and capable management.

Mr. Millard now owns a large and flourishing foundry and machine shop and
also conducts the leading automobile garage and repair shop.

Socially he is identified with the Masonic Fraternity and the I. O. O. F. In i860
he was united in marriage to Miss Leah Roosa, daughter of Andrew P. Roosa, by
whom he had three children, two daughters and a son, John R., a member of flie
firm of James Millard & Son.

CHRISTOPHER J. MILLER of Milton is a native of Germany and has con-
ducted business in Milton for over forty years. About thirty-five years ago he
erected a block which was afterwards burned, but Mr. Miller immediately erected
another in which he now conducts an extensive clothing and furnishing business,
together with a tobacco and cigar store and barber shop. *He is assisted by his son
Frederick. Mr. Miller’s family consists of five children, Mary, married to William
Ellis; Elida, married to William P. Fischer; Paulina, Frederick and Grace. Mr.
IS^ller has served on the Board of Education of Milton and as Notary Public. He
is one of the substantial men of Milton, and is highly regarded wherever known.

EDWARD B. MILLER, proprietor of “Roxmor,” a secluded resort in the
Catskills, was born in New York City in 1864. In 1898 he came to Ulster County
and secured one hundred acres in the town of Shandaken, where he erected a
modern home-like hotel, with accommodations for seventy-five guests.

Mr. Miller has recently created what is known as ‘Roxmor Colony,’’ whereby lots
are leased, the lessee erecting the building to suit his own preference, ranging from
a simple camp to a complete cottage. This plan is meeting with much success and
many New Yorkers and people from other cities who enjoy summering in the
Catskills have secured leases and erected cottages on this tract.

THOMAS MOONEY, who has been Superintendent of the Schultz Brickyard
for twenty-five years, is one of the best and most successful brick burners in the
Hudson Valley, and the strength, beauty and evenness of color for which the
Schultz brick is noted is due to his unceasing efforts in that direction.

Associated with the same concern is his son, John Mooney, who has filled the office
of Assistant Superintendent since 1902. He is one of Ulster County’s native sons
and was born in 1881. After securing a liberal education he entered upon his

BIOGRAPHICAL. 651

present vocation. He also holds the office of Police Justice for the town of Ulster.
In 1906 he was united in marriage to Miss Veronica Bostel.

JOHN J. MORAN, who has been connected with educational work in his native
city for over a quarter of a century, was born August I5> 1855?

Kingston, where he obtained his preliminary education at the parochial and public
schools, finishing his studies at St. Vincent’s College, Westmoreland County, Pa.
In 1876 Mr. Moran accepted the Principalship of No. i School, Kingston, where
he remained three and one-half years, and in July, 1881, was elected Principal of
School No. 15, which he held until January i, 1888, when he was elected School
Commissioner, and during twelve years of conscientious service in that capacity,
raised the efficiency of the schools in the city of Kingston and towns of Hurley,
Kingston, Saugerties and Ulster.

In 1903 Mr. Moran became Associate Principal of Spencer’s Business School,
Kingston, where so many of Ulster County’s young men and women have been
prepared for a successful business career, Mr. Moran always having in mind the
greatest good of the individual pupils as future members of society and of the State.

DAVID MOSHER, M. D., was born in Kingston in 1851. He attended the public
schools of Woodstock and Kingston Academy and finished his preliminary education
at the Albany State Normal School. He graduated from the University of the City
of New York with the degree of M. D. in 1878, and has practiced in the village of
Marlborough since 1881, serving as Health Officer of the village for the past six
years.

Dr. Mosher is Vice-President of the Ulster County Medical Society, and is a
member of the State and Newburgh Medical Societies and the American Medical
Association. He is also identified with the I. O. O. F. He married Irene *A.
Grinley. Samuel A., the father of Dr. Mosher, was a resident for many years of
Woodstock, N. Y. His wife, who was Miss Lucy Knapp, is also a native of Ulster
County. This union was blessed by eight children, all of whom are living.

MOUNT MONGOLA HOUSE and grounds are located in the heart of the
Shawangunk Mountains, about three miles east of the village of Ellenville. A. J.
and F. J. Farr, the proprietors, are sons of Adam Farr, who settled there in i860.
In 1890 the brothers began taking a few boarders and at once foresaw the pos-
sibilities along that line. They began making improvements on the premises to
accommodate their ever increasing patronage and now have a modern hotel with a
capacity of seventy-five guests.

Mount Mongola is situated on one of the highest peaks of the Shawangunk
range, two thousand feet above sea level, and commands a view of the broad, fertile
valley of the Wallkill on the east and the Rondout valley on the west. The air
at this height is dry and invigorating and natural springs furnish water, at all times
pure and cold. Many places of natural or historic interest are in the vicinity — Sam’s
Point is perhaps the most interesting — while the wonderful ice caves in the vicinity,
where ice abounds the year around, attracts thousands of visitors.

652

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

Mount Mongola’s estate comprises between two and three hundred acres of land^
heavily timbered. Especial attention is given to the raising of fruits and vegetables
and the well managed dairy contributes largely to the comforts and pleasure of the
guests.

JOHN MUNRO. — Of the many beautiful summer residences for which Ulster
County and the Catskills are noted, “Balmoral/’ the country home of John Munro,
of Brooklyn, N. Y., is worthy of especial mention.

“Balmoral” is located on the western slope of Belle Ayr Mountain, one mile from
the village of Highmount. It comprises an estate of seventy acres in the northern
section of the town of Shandaken. The view from this point is unsurpassed. The
bold peaks of the Catskills stand out in sharp relief on all sides, while below, some
two miles distant, lies the village of Pine Hill.

Mr. Munro is a native of Dufftown, Banffshire, Scotland. He came to America
in 1871, and located at St. John, New Brunswick, Canada, where he remained nine
years. In 1880 he removed to New York, and engaged in boat and ship building.

He married Miss Matilda Walker, of St. John, and they have two daughters,
Effie Gordon and Matilda Catherine, and one son, William Stanley.

Mr. Munro purchased the Balmoral property in 1901, and has made of it an ideal
summer home.

FRANCIS M. MURPHY was born in Kingston, New York, in i860. After attend-
ing the educational institutions of his native city and passing the Regents’ examina-
tions, he went West and taught school four years. He also attended the Carleton
College in Minnesota and the Normal and Commercial College at Valparaiso,
Indiana. In 1883 he returned to Kingston and learned the plumber’s trade with
Bernard Loughran. He located in the village of Saugerties in 1888 as general
manager of plumbing and heating for Mr. J. M. Lowe and upon the death of Mr.
Philo Lowe, took charge of the Waterworks Department, of which he is now
Superintendent. In 1896, when the plant was sold to the village, Mr. Murphy pur-
chased the plumbing stock and established his present business, which he has con-
ducted with uniform success.

Mr. Murphy was united in marriage to Miss Gertrude Chaffel of Plattekill Town-
ship. They have one daughter, Gertrude.

CHRISTOPHER AUGUSTINE MURRAY, one of the representative self-made
men of Ulster County, was born in Rondout on April 18, 1857. He is a son of
William and Catherine Murray, who were both born in the County of Kildare,
Ireland. His father came to Rondout in 1826, and remained there until his death in
1893. Christopher attended the common schools in the villages of Port Ewen and
Rondout until 1871, when he entered his father’s store as a clerk. In 1873 he went
for one year to Saint Mary’s College at Montreal, Canada, and the following year
he spent at Georgetown College in the District of Columbia. After leaving college
he again resumed his duties as clerk in his father’s store until 1879, at which time
his fath^*r retired from business. In 1880 he entered the law office of Mr. John E.

BIOGRAPHICAL.

653

VanEtteri of Kingston, and was admitted to the bar at Albany in January, 1883.
From January i, 1884, to January i, 1888, he held the office of Justice of the Peace
in Kingston.

In 1887 Mr. Murray established a fire insurance business, which he conducted for
some time in connection with his law practice, and also dealt in real estate. The
business soon reached such proportion and demanded so much of his time that he
enlisted the services of his two brothers, Thomas J. and John A., who became
associated with him in the enterprise, Thomas J. conducting the real estate business
and John A., who is well known as an insurance expert, having the management of
the insurance department. This is now one of the largest and most profitable
insurance and real estate agencies in the city. From January i, 1894, to January i,
1900, he was Recorder of the City of Kingston.

He has repeatedly declined nominations for various city and county offices. Since
his admission to the bar he has been actively engaged in his profession, giving
attention to general litigation, but mainly to office business. Surrogate’s Court
practice, the investment of money and settlement of estates. He has won an enviable
reputation for varied information, sound judgment and disinterested devotion to the
interests of his numerous clients and patrons, and his record has been such as to
entitle him to the high degree of confidence which he enjoys among the leading men
of Ulster County. He has always taken an active part in all matters concerning the
welfare of the City of Kingston. Mr. Murray is an Exempt Fireman, now Presi-
dent of Union Hose Company No. 4 of Kingston, a member of the B. P. O. Elks
and Knights of Columbus.

WILLIAM J. MYERS, Manager of the Crystal Spring Water Company, Pine
Hill, N. Y., is a native of Delaware County. He came to Ulster County in 1880 and
engaged in the fruit and vegetable business for five years. Mr. Myers had in the
meantime acquired possession of the land upon which the Crystal Springs are
located. This he sold in 1885 to a company, and upon the organization of the com-
pany was appointed Manager of the works at Pine Hill. This position he still
retains. A force of twenty-five hands are employed and the latest machinery and
apparatus are utilized in bottling this celebrated pure spring water for public con-
sumption.

Mr. Myers’s family consists of wife and three children, Effie, Francis and Mary.
Mrs. Myers’s maden name was Elizabeth Symond. He is a member of the Junior
Order of United American Mechanics.

B. FRANKLIN NEAL, M. D., of Ellenville, N. Y., was born in the town of
Lisbon, Lisbon Falls, Maine, February 25, 1853. He received his education, first at
the Lisbon Falls High School, from which he was graduated in 1871. He later
entered Bowdoin College, taking a two years’ course, and completed his studies
at Dartmouth College, from which he graduated in 1876. He opened an office and
began the practice of medicine at Lincolnville, Maine, where he remained six years ;
then in Gardiner, Maine, one year, and Belgrade, Maine, six years. He then took a

654

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

post-graduate course in medicine and surgery in the New York Post-Graduate
College and in November, 1887, came to Ellenville and engaged in practice. In
1900 he passed the State Board of New York Pharmacy.

Dr. Neal is a member of the Maine State, the Waldo, the Kennebeck and the
American Medical Associations and the Ulster County and New York State Medical
Societies. Socially he is connected with the Masonic Order, the I. O. O. F. and the
K. of P. On October 12, 1881, he married Anna H. Marson of Pittston, Me.

The late ADAM NEIDLINGER, of West Park, N. Y., was born in Rhenish
Hessia, Germany, December 31, 1831, and came to America in 1852.

He here acquired a thorough knowledge of the manufacture of malt, and in 1863
established himself in business on his own account; his success was immediate,
and in a few years he became the recognized leader of the malting industry in
this country, and as such he continued until his retirement from active business in
1899. His seven malting plants were located in New York, Brooklyn, South
Rondout, Cayuga, Sodus Point and Oswego, N. Y.

Mr. Neidlinger was also identified with the ice business, as sole owner of the
Manhattan Ice Company, whose properties were situated at Eddyville, South
Rondout and Four Mile Point, N. Y., and at Phippsburg, Maine.

Mr. Neidlinger’s interests in Ulster County dated back to almost the beginning of
his business career, and in 1884 he chose it for his permanent home, having pur-
chased at West Park-on-th e-Hudson the beautiful estate known as “Waldorf,”
which at one time belonged to the late John Jacob Astor.

Mr. Neidlinger was a man of sterling character, of great courage and energy, and
was very highly esteemed by all who knew him. He died on January 9, 1904. As
attesting the regard in which he was held by his neighbors, the vestry of Ascension
Church at West Park, N. Y., passed the following resolution:

IN MEMORIAM,

The Rector and Vestry of Ascension Church, West Park, on behalf
of the congregation, desire to express and record their deep sense of
the loss which the Parish has been called to sustain in the departure
out of this world of their friend and colleague, Adam Neidlinger.
Always ready to co-operate in the maintenance of the Church, proving
by the large part which he took in the improvement of the village, his
public spirit, his work was appreciated by the whole community, and
will, we believe, be a lasting memorial to his honor. His cordial bearing
and good will won for him the hearty respect and esteem of all sorts
and conditions of men. His career of integrity and success, attained
by a life of honorable acquisition, will long stand before our people
as a marked illustration of that good name which is better than riches.

We would offer our heartfelt sympathy to his family in their great
bereavement, feeling that, outside of their own home, none have
greater reason to deplore his loss than his neighbors in the Parish,

BIOGRAPHICAL.

655

who have enjoyed his friendship through the many years of his resi-
dence among us.

Legh Richmond Dickinson, Rector.

John U. Brookman, Warden.

W. H. VAN Benschoten, Treasurer.

Charles Atkins.

West Park, N. Y., October 23, 1904-

ALBERT M. NORRIS. — Among the respected citizens of Ulster County who
have achieved success is Albert M. Norris, who was born in Rhinebeck, Dutchess
County, New York, May 7, 1826. After completing his studies at the public schools
he learned the blacksmith trade, at which he worked eight years. He purchased a
hotel and store at Ulster Park, which he conducted from 1853 to 1889. He now
owns one of the largest farms in Ulster Park, consisting of 160 acres mostly devoted
to the growing of fruit. In 1848 he was united in marriage to Miss Sarah M. Holt
and three children were born to them, all of whom are deceased. Mr. Norris
has always taken an active interest in affairs pertaining to the welfare of the
county, and in 1885 was appointed Loan Commissioner by the late Judge Schoon-
maker.

J. V. HENRY NOTT, of Lake Katrine, was born at Glasgow, Scotland, while his
parents were touring the Continent. His education was obtained in the schools
of Schenectady and Union College. For many years he conducted a real estate
and brokerage office in New York and in 1880 purchased the farm on which he now
resides.

His father, Joel B. Nott, Professor of Chemistry in Union College, Schenectady,
New York, was an inventor of note, the “Nott heater,” a stove for heating churches
and schools, was invented and perfected by him. His connection with Union
College covered a period of about thirty-five years, and the later years of his life
were passed in retirement on his farm in Albany County.

THOMAS F. O’DEA, V. S., of Saugerties, was born at Ghent, Columbia County,
N. Y., November 6, 1862. He received his education in the District Schools and
passed the early years of his life in assisting his father on the farm. Having
decided upon a career as a veterinary he entered the New York College of Veter-
inary Surgeons, from which he graduated March 23, 1893. He immediately located
in Saugerties, where he has since acquired a large practice.

He married Margaret Hennegan of Saugerties, and they have three children,
Margaret Frances, Florence May and Thomas Edward.

EDWARD O’NEIL, whose name is linked with the introduction of Methodism in
Ulster County, was born in the North of Ireland in 1783, and came to America in
1705 with his parents, John and Mary O’Neil. The family consisted of three boys
and two girls. In 1810 his father settled on what was known as Judge Wynkoop’s

656

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

farm near Old Hurley, and Edward was engaged as teacher in Kingston Academy,
and was principal of this institution from i8i6 to 1820. He resided at the corner
of Front and Green streets, and here established a Sunday-school class in 1816,
which was continued until 1822, when it was removed to the chapel of the First
Reformed Church. He died December 17, 1856. His nephew, Charles M. O’Neil,
married Miss Mary V. Hester, and four children were born to them, Susan S.,
Anna L., Charles H., and Cora May.

Samuel W. Hester, the father of Mrs. Mary V. O’Neil and Col. C. V. Hester,
was a highly respected citizen of Ulster County, where he was born, in 1812. He
attended the district schools of Esopus, and while still a lad went to Rhinebeck,
Dutchess County, N. Y., where he learned the carpenters’ trade. He subsequently
removed to Poughkeepsie, where he married Jane, daughter of Abraham Van
Anden. They had three children, William, Mary V. and Charles V. Mr. Hester
was for many years a contractor and builder in Poughkeepsie, erecting many of
the public buildings there. He was a member of the Sons of Temperance, and
originator of the Sunday afternoon temperance meetings in that city. In 1863
he removed to Brooklyn and was in the office of the Brooklyn Eagle until 1870,
when he returned to Kingston, where he made his home until his death, March 18,
1890.

The Van Anden family were among the early settlers of Dutchess County. Isaac
Van Anden, brother of Mrs. Sam’l Hester, founded the Brooklyn Eagle, and her
son William is now the president of and a stockholder in the Brooklyn Eagle Pub-
lishing Company.

HENRY O’NEIL, who founded the mammoth dry goods house of H. O’Neil &
Company, New York, in 1856, chose the Catskills in Ulster County for his country
seat in 1896. Situated in the extreme northwest corner of the county on the slope
of Belle Ayr Mountain, Mr. O’Neil’s place affords a magnificent view of an
unrivalled stretch of scenery. It is in this retreat that he has enjoyed rest and
seclusion many weeks each year.

DEWITT W. OSTRANDER was born in the town of Lloyd, Ulster County,
N. Y., December 20, 1859. Peter Ostrander, the earliest ancestor of whom any-
thing definite is known, was born in the city of Amsterdam, Holland, and during
the period of oppression which followed the revocation of the edict of Nantes fled
with many of the Huguenots of France and Holland to this country and settled
at Kingston, N. Y., bringing his wife and three children with him. Peter Ostran-
der, Jr., a son of Peter Ostrander above mentioned, born in Holland in 1650, mar-
ried Rebacca Traphagen at Kingston, N. Y., on January 19, 1670. Hendrick Ostran-
der (son of Peter and Rebecca) was born and reared at Kingston, N. Y., and
married Elizabeth Van Bommel at Kingston on May 12, 1724. He afterward
moved to the town of Marlborough, now Plattekill, where he purchased a tract
of two thousand acres of land, being a part of the Spratt and Marscholm Patent.

The great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch, Wilhelmus Ostrander (son
of Hendrick and Elizabeth), was born April 29, 1743, and was married Novem-

BIOGRAPHICAL.

657

ber 2, 1771, to Sarah, daughter of Dean Relyea, a French Protestant, who came
to this country at an early period. Wilhelmus Ostrander was a Lieutenant in the
Fourth Regiment of Ulster County Militia in the Revolutionary War, and was at
the surrender of Burgoyne at Saratoga.

Denysius Ostrander (son of Wilhelmus and Sarah) was born at the town of
Plattekill, July i, 1776, and married Maria Clearwater, daughter of Joseph Clear-
water, at New Paltz, N. Y., March 21, 1803.

William Ostrander (son of Denysius and Maria) and the father of the subject
of this sketch, was born at the town of Plattekill, July i, 1811, and married Han-
nah M. Harp (daughter of Simeon Harp and Helen J. Clearwater), town of
Rochester, Ulster County, November 7, 1857.

The subject of this sketch moved with his parents to Clintondale when he was
eight years of age and was reared on a farm near the village; he attended the
district school until his fifteenth year and was then sent to Oakwood Seminary at
Union Springs, N. Y., where he graduated in 1877. He then took up the study
of law in the office of Hon. S. G. Young at Highland, N. Y., and was admitted to
the bar in November, 1880.

In January, 1881, he opened an office at Clintondale, where he has since lived
and practiced his profession, being one of the leading attorneys of Southern Ulster
and a conspicuous member of the bar of Ulster County.

He married Ella J. Tice, of Ellenville, N. Y. ; the issue of this marriage is one
daughter, Vida M., born August 27, 1891.

HECTOR OSTERHOUDT, Merchant and Postmaster of Rifton, N. Y., is a native
of Ulster County. He was born in the town of Rochester in 1861, attended local
school and for twenty years was a valued employe with J. W. Dimick’s Carpet
Mills Company as storekeeper. In 1900 he established himself in the mercantile
business in Rifton. In 1886 he was appointed Postmaster of Rifton by President
Cleveland, and has held that office under succeeding administrations.

Mr, Osterhoudt is a member of the Knights of Pythias, Red Men, etc., and is a
staunch Republican, He has a family of four children, Harry, Florence, Curtis and
Amy.

RICHARD O’SULLIVAN, Assistant Superintendent of the Ulster & Delaware
Railroad Company, is a civil engineer by profession. His education was obtained
at the public schools of Hoboken, N. J., and the Cooper Institute in New York.
From 1876 to 1884 he has been engaged successively in the location and construction
of the following enterprises: The first Hudson River Tunnel; the Third and

Ninth Avenue Elevated Railroads in New York; the Elizabeth City & Norfolk
R. R. in Virginia; the N. Y. W. S. & H. R. R. and the Southern Pennsylvania
R. R. He then removed to Kingston, New York, to accept the position of engineer
to the roadmaster of the West Shore R. R., which he filled until 1888, when he was
appointed roadmaster of the Wallkill Valley R. R., remaining until January, 1899.
He was then appointed division engineer of the West Shore R. R., between New
York and Albany. He resigned this position in June of the same year to accept

658

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

that of assistant roadmaster and in August, 1906, was promoted to his present
position.

EDGAR E. OUGHELTREE was born in the City of Kingston May 12, 1864. He
finished his preliminary education at the Ulster Academy and then took up the
study of law in the office of Lawton & Stebbins. He was graduated from the Law
Department of Union University, securing the degree of Bachelor of Laws in 1886.
He was admitted to the bar and continued in the office of his preceptors for about
two years, when he received the appointment of Assistant Postmaster at Rondout,
where he remained until 1892. He removed to Esopus, where he practiced law and
also served as Justice of the Peace for about six years. He returned to Kingston
in 1899 to accept the office of Deputy Postmaster, of which he is still the incumbent.
In 1889 he was married to Miss Marion Smith, of Kingston, daughter of Jerome
Smith, and they have two daughters, Cornelia and Jessie, and a son Edgar.

R. B. OVERBAUGH, one of the leading business men of Saugerties, was born in
that village September 21, 1862. • He attended the Saugerties Academy and also
took a two years’ course of study in the Brooklyn schools. When fifteen years of
age he began work as an office boy with J. B. Sheffield & Son, paper manufacturers,
of Saugerties, with whom he remained twelve years, and was head bookkeeper for
the firm during a considerable portion of that time. In 1890 he purchased the N.
C. Bohr boot and shoe business, which he ran successfully eight years. Three years
previous to his purchase of the boot and shoe business, Mr. Overbaugh and W. E.
Simmons purchased the coal and lumber business, then being conducted by Van
Etten & Burhans ; this they continued to run until 1901, when they dissolved part-
nership, Mr. Simmons taking the Tannersville branch of the business which they had
established, and Mr. Overbaugh the Saugerties branch. This concern is now known
as the Saugerties Coal and Lumber Company.

Mr. Overbaugh’s marriage to Miss Isabel Freligh occurred in 1885. She is a
daughter of J. Austin Freligh, a well known citizen of Saugerties, at present Secre-
tary of the Saugerties Savings Bank.

They have five children, Gertrude, Richard, Isabel, William Hoyt and John
Caldwell, the last two of whom are twins. Mr. Overbaugh is President of the
Saugerties Board of Education and Secretary of the Sewer Commission. His
father, Peter T. Oberbaugh, was a brick manufacturer of Saugerties and a descen-
dant of the Overbaughs who emigrated from Holland early in the seventeenth cen-
tury.

ALBERT H. PALMER, M. D., of Marlborough, was born in Plattekill, New
York, September 8, 1851, where he attended the district schools. At twelve years
of age his family moved into the town of Lloyd and he finished his education at
the Highland Seminary. He entered the Medical Department of the University of
Michigan, and later New York University, graduating in 1876, and has practiced
continuously in the village of Marlborough since that time.

Dr. Palmer is a member of the County and State Medical Societies, the New-

BIOGRAPHICAL.

659

burgh Bay Medical Society and the American Medical Association. He has been
connected with the School Board of Marlborough for the past twenty years, and
was President of the Board of Education for three years.

Dr. Palmer was married to Sarah M. Burnside of Marlborough and their family
consists of three daughters and a son, John Howard, Mary A., Sarah I. and Clara

L. Zophar Palmer, father of our subject, married Clara Head of Michigan.

H. W. PALEN’S SONS. — Frank A. and Burton B. Palen, who constitute the
above firm, are sons of Henry W. Palen, a native of Ulster County, who was born
at Stone Ridge, April 9, 1838, and died in Kingston, April 6, 1893. He learned
the carpenters’ trade and afterward came to Kingston and started a sash and blind
factory on Wall street. In 1877 he built the sash and blind factory on St. James
street ,which he carried on until two years before his death. He married Anna

M. Pine, of Marbletown, April 19, 1865, and they had four children, namely : prank
A., Burton B., Watson C., and Edgar N. Mr. Palen was a member of the Meth-
odist Episcopal Church of Kingston and for years was a teacher in the Sunday-
school.

Frank A. Palen attended Kingston Academy and later took a course at East-
man’s Business College, Poughkeepsie. He then entered the lumber and coal
office of his father, and on October 20, 1892, the firm of H. W. Palen’s Sons was
organized. He married Florence L. Humphrey, of Kingston, April 14, 1887, and
they have one son, Henry W. Mr. Palen is a member of Kingston Lodge No. 10,
F. & A. M. ; Rondout Commandery No. 52; Mecca Temple of Mystic Shrine of
New York City, and the Kingston Club.

Burton B. Palen, who has charge of the coal business of the firm, was married at
Cold Brook, town of Shandaken, to Angelina Keator. He is a member of Kings-
ton Lodge No. 10, F. & A. M. ; Mount Horeb Chapter No. 75, and the Kingston
Club.

ALTON BROOKS PARKER. — This eminent jurist was born at Cortland, N. Y.,
May 14, 1852. He is the son of John Brooks Parker and Harriet F. Stratton,
whose ancestors were residents of Massachusetts. John Parker, his great-grand-
father, served three years in the Revolutionary War. Like so many who have
achieved distinction and renown in American history. Judge Parker had the good
fortune of birth on a farm. His childhood days for twelve years were spent on
his father’s farm in Cortland, where the foundation for his rugged physical struc-
ture and manly physique were laid and developed. At the age of four he was
sent to the district school, and as soon as he was old enough, was required to help
in the fields and in the lighter work that boys can do on a farm. At the age
of twelve he became a student in the Cortland Academy. He taught school in
Virgil, Cortland County, and in Binghamton, to get the necessary money to defray
his expenses in the Academy and subsequently in the Cortland Normal School.
He then came to Rochester, Ulster County, to teach, and from there entered the
law office of Schoonmaker & Hardenbergh at Kingston. In 1871 and 1872 he at-
tended the Albany Law School. After graduation he was employed in the office

66o

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

of Augustus Schoonmaker (Senator Hardenbergh having died) as a clerk on a
small salary, until he formed a partnership with William S. Kenyon, Jr., under the
firm name of Parker & Kenyon.

Being now a full-fledged lawyer, with considerable active practice in the local
courts, young Parker took a lively interest in local politics, which at the time pre-
sented some alluring features to members of the Democratic Party, with which
organization he had been allied from the first. He married Miss Mary L. Schoon-
maker, daughter of Moses I. Schoonmaker, of Accord, in the town of Rochester,
Ulster County, in 1873, having made her acquaintance while teaching the district
school in that little hamlet. Mr. Schoonmaker was a prominent Democratic poli-
tician, and it was through his influence perhaps that his promising son-in-law was
launched in his political career. He was chosen Clerk of the Democratic Board
of Supervisors of Ulster County that year at a salary of $800, and served in that
capacity until 1877, when he was elected Surrogate of the County for six years at
a salary of $3,000, being the only Democratic winner on his ticket. He was re-
elected in 1883 by a handsome majority. Two years later, having attracted the at-
tention of David B. Hill, who was then Governor of the State, young Parker was
appointed Chairman of the State Democratic Executive Committee, a position
which he filled with conspicuous ability to the satisfaction of his party leaders.
Meanwhile he had served the Ulster County Board of Supervisors as counsel in a
hard fought equalization suit against the City of Kingston, which he won.

At the death of Justice Theodoric R. Westbrook, of the Supreme Court, in Oc-
tober, 1885, Parker was appointed to the vacancy by Governor Hill. To this po-
sition he was elected for a full term in the fall of 1886 without opposition. Then,
on creation of the Second Division of the Court of Appeals in January, 1889, Judge
Parker was selected as one of the Judges, being the youngest member who ever
sat in that court. This position he held until that branch of the court was abol-
ished in 1892. He was then appointed to the General Term of the First Depart-
ment by Governor Flower, and afterward succeeded to the Appellate Division in
1896 by the designation of Governor Black. The following year he was nomi-
nated by his party for Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals, to which he was elected
by a plurality of 60,000 votes.

Judge Parker had now reached the high judicial position to which he had long
aspired, as he afterward frankly assured the writer of this sketch. He said the
place was entirely congenial to him, and even when his name was first mentioned
for Governor, with hints of the possibility of a still greater honor in the future,
he turned a deaf ear and would have none of it. Having attained a position to
his entire satisfaction, and for which he considered himself fitted, he said he had
no aspiration for the Presidency, for which he di4 not feel especially fitted. But
his political friends were insistent. They had already urged him to be a candidate
for Secretary of State in 1883 and for Lieutenant-Governor two years later. Presi-
dent Cleveland wanted to appoint him Assistant Postmaster-General under Mr.
Vilas in 1890, and the party nomination for Governor was pressed upon him. The
following year he was urged for the election to the United States Senate. But
he preferred his law books and the bench, and induced Governor Hill to take the

BIOGRAPHICAL.

66i

place himself. Again in 1902 the gubernatorial candidacy was dangled before him,
but he declined as before.

But it seemed decreed that Chief Justice Parker must not be permitted to round
out his high judicial career as he had marked out for himself. Long before the
opening of the national campaign in 1904, his name was prominently mentioned
for the Presidential candidacy of his party. His great victory in the State in 1897
had brought him into national prominence as an available candidate. He had kept
aloof from the bitter conflicts that had resulted in the disrupture and defeat of
his party in recent years, and he enjoyed the respect and confidence of the con-
servative voters of the country. He was a resident of the pivotal State from
which the Republican candidate had been selected. The party was hopelessly di-
vided, and an obscure and untried man could not be thought of. While his views
of national questions were unknown, if indeed he had ever stopped in his busy
career to formulate them, perhaps that in itself made him all the more available
at that critical juncture in the party history. Thus it was that among a large and
influential class of the Democratic leaders in this and other States, Judge Parker
was considered the most available man for the party honor.

He was accordingly nominated at St. Louis in July, 1904. Slim as his chances
of success were regarded on all sides, in view of the great personal popularity of
his opponent, and the insidious dissensions that existed in his own party in the
North and West, it was a great honor to be named by one of the great parties
of the nation as its national standard bearer. He was made to believe that his
acceptance of the nomination was an imperative duty which he owed to his party
in spite of any personal objections or inclinations he might have. He had been
chosen to represent his party in nearly every convention since he entered political
life, and had been showered with party honors and favor for years, and he could
not well refuse to obey this call now. Thus it was that Chief Judge Parker con-
sented to be led to the sacrifice, against the advice of many of his friends in both
parties, and perhaps contrary to his own best judgment and inclination. His de-
feat was inevitable, and it proved greater than had been expected.

An important incident connected with his nomination at St. Louis was the send-
ing of his famous “gold telegram” and its reception by the convention. The Demo-
cratic national platform which had been adopted contained no reference to the
money question. Parker, who was then at his summer home in Esopus, being
unwilling to go before the people in that way, sent the following telegram to Wil-
liam F. Sheehan at St. Louis :

“I regard the gold standard as firmly and irrevocably established, and shall act
accordingly if the action of the convention to-day shall be ratified by the people.
As the platform is silent on the subject, my views should be made known to the
convention, and if it is proved to be unsatisfactory to the majority I request you
to decline the nomination for me at once so that another may be nominated before
adjournment.”

This dispatch was read by Governor Vardaman, of Mississippi, after much ap-
parent hesitation on the part of the Parker managers. It was then about mid-
night of July 10, and the convention was thrown into great uproar. William J.

662

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

Bryan took the platform amid an exciting ovation, and said: “If the gold standard
is a good thing, then why run away from it? Why not put it into your platform?”

It was finally decided, however, that inasmuch as the patform contained no refer-
ence to the monetary standard, which the party leaders said was not regarded as
a possible issue in the campaign, there was nothing to preclude Judge Parker’s
acceptance ot the nomination. This was the substance of a dispatch sent him by
the convention.

He had, of course, resigned his place upon the bench on accepting the Presiden-
tial nomination, and he now resumed the active practice of law in New York City,
where he has since been engaged in many important cases, and enjoys a lucrative
practice. He was recently chosen a member of the International Policyholders’
Committee of the Mutual Life and the New York Life Insurance Companies of
New York, and is now chairman of the executive branch of that committee. At
the annual meeting of the American Bar Association, held at St. Paul in August,
1906, he was elected its president, and now holds that office.

JAMES E. PHINNEY, of Kingston, was born in the town of Saugerties, January
8, 1839. He spent his boyhood days in the town of Woodstock, where his father
removed soon after his birth. At the age of fourteen he left home and went to sea on
a whaling vessel, afterwards shipping on a merchant ship, and spent nine years in
all as a sailor. In 1861 he enlisted for one year in the navy and was assigned to the
Steamer Connecticut. After his discharge he re-enlisted in the Ninth Massachu-
setts Volunteer Infantry, Army of the Potomac, and with his company took part
in the battles of Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Mine
Run and the Battle of the Wilderness. He was slightly wounded at Fredericks-
burg and severely so at Spottsylvania Court House, which took place on May 12,
1864. He was at this time taken prisoner, but was re-captured by his comrades
a few days later and was confined in hospitals at Washington and Philadelphia
until the close of the war.

He returned north and in 1867 engaged in the milling business at Wilbur, which
he carried on for a number of years. In politics Mr. Phinney was a Republican. He
twice received the nomination for Sheriff of the county. In 1892 he was ap-
pointed City Treasurer, which office he held six years, and was Mayor of Kingston
in 1899-1900. He was Superintendent of the Newark Lime and Cement Company
seven 3^ears.

He was a member of Pratt Post, G. A. R., of which he was Commander three
terms, and was a member of Franklin Lodge, K. of P. He was married at Sauger-
ties June 2, 1867, to Mary J. Valkenburg and nine children have been born to them,
as follows: John, deceased; Eleanor, the wife of E. P. Estabrook of New York
City ; Catherine and Mary E., deceased ; Edwin, Loretta, deceased, Sarah, Charles
and Frank. Mr. Phinney died March 16, 1907.

His father, Hiram, learned the trade of cloth making and when a young man
located in Saugerties and engaged in the manufacture of woolen goods. He was
there married to Eliza A. Ingram, a native of Kingston, and they had four children
of whom all are dead except James. The mother died in 1867 and the father in 1869.

BIOGRAPHICAL.

663

FRANK R. POWLEY, President and Treasurer of the Kingston Coal Company
and Secretary of the North River Coal Company, was born in Kingston in i860.
After finishing his education at the public schools he was employed for a time in
the Rondout Postoffice. From 1880 to 1900 he was engaged in the hardware business
and in 1901 was associated with the organizers in the establishment of the above
companies, which now enjoy the most extensive coal trade in Ulster County.

Mr. Powley is numbered among the substantial business men of Kingston.

GEORGE W. PRATT of Highland, N. Y., President of the First National Bank
of that village, was born in the town of Lloyd (formerly New Paltz), September 22,
1840, and is a son of Alden J. and Derenda (Ransom) Pratt, He attended the
public school. Fort Plain Institute, and Claverack College. On coming of age, Mr.
Pratt engaged in the flour and feed milling business with Phillip LeRoy ; after one
year, buying out his partner and for several years conducted the business alone.
In 1889 he and his son, Harcourt J., entered into partnership for the manufacture
of fruit packages and the sale of coal, lumber and grain. In 1902 he was elected
President of the First National Bank of Highland. In 1872 and 1873 he served as
County Supervisor, but has since refused public office. On December 21, 1865, Mr.
Pratt was united in marriage with Adelaide Harcourt, daughter of Matthew T. and
Sarah (Deyo) Harcourt. Four children were born to this union, Harcourt J., Jennie
C., Alden J. and Bessie. Jennie C. became the wife of Homer Howgate and died
in January, 1904; Alden J, died when twelve years of age, Mr. Pratt has always
been a Republican, his first vote having been cast for Abraham Lincoln. In
religious faith he is member of the Presbyterian Church, and is socially affiliated
with F. & A. M. Lodge at Highland, of which he is one of the trustees,

HARCOURT J. PRATT of Highland, N. Y., was born in the township of
Lloyd, October 23, 1866, and is the eldest son of George W. and Adelaide (Har-
court) Pratt. He was educated in the local schools and the Poughkeepsie and
Claverack Academies. When seventeen years of age he was appointed Page in the
State Assembly, which position he held for one year, and was then promoted to
Clerk’s Messenger in the Senate, which he filled for a period of six years. In 1886
he embarked in the manufacture of fruit packages, and in 1889 entered into part-
nership with his father, George W. Pratt, for the carrying on of that industry, and
in the conducting of a general coal, lumber and grain business, under the firm name
of George W. Pratt & Son. A Republican in politics, Mr. Pratt was elected in
the spring of 1895 to the office of Town Supervisor and re-elected in 1896. In
1897 he was elected a member of the State Assembly, serving one term, since which
time he has absolutely refused public office, preferring to devote his time and
energies to his rapidly developing business interests, which require his undivided
attention. He married Miss Mary Hasbrouck, and to them three children have been
born, George W., Jr., Augusta and Jennie C. Mr. Pratt is identified with local,
social and benevolent institutions, such as Masonic Fraternity, K. of P., and Grange.

WILLIAM G. QUINN, undertaker of Rosendale, was born in the town of
Esopus, October 22, 1859. He attended the local schools and for the following

664

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

twenty-two years was employed in the ice industry in New York City, and during
that period has the very remarkable record of not losing a single day from his
duties. In 1894 he came to Rosendale and established an undertaking business,
which he has since successfully conducted. Before coming to Rosendale, Mr. Quinn
served as Alderman in Weehawken for three terms, but has not actively participated
in political affairs since coming here, although he still takes much interest in public
affairs. Mr. Quinn married Chatherine Welch, and they have a famil}’^ of three
children, Mary Elizabeth, Rosania and William Quinn, Jr.

CHARLES A. RANSOM, Postmaster of Malden, N. Y., is a native of Saugerties.
He was born in 1845, attended the local schools, and afterward engaged in steam-
boating for four years. In 1876 he established a general store in Malden, which he
has since conducted. Mr. Ransom was first appointed Postmaster under President
McKinley in 1898.

He married Miss Louisa White of Sharon, Conn., and their family consists of two
children, Anna T. and Arthur L. In politics Mr. Ransom is a Republican.

ALBERT REED, M.D., of Highland, who is successfully engaged in the
practice of medicine and in conducting a drug business there, was born in Glen
Wild, Sullivan County, N. Y., July 17, 1861, and is a son of Cholby J. Reed, also
a native of this State, born near Cayuga Lake, and a third cousin of Hon. Chauncey
M. Depew. The early education of Dr. Reed was acquired in public schools and
later in the Monticello Academy and Hackettstown Collegiate Institute. He is a
self-made and self-educated man, having by teaching acquired the capital which
enabled him to pursue his more advanced studies. After completing his pre-
liminary course of study he entered the office of George F. Perry of Sullivan
County, under whom he studied for one year. He then entered the office of Dr.
W. P. Scott, a noted physician of Detroit, Michigan, acting as his assistant and
attending lectures at the Detroit Medical College for one year; but being desirous
of receiving better clinical advantages, he went to New York, where he took up a
course of lectures at the College of Physicians and Surgeons and attended the
clinics in the various hospitals, besides taking special courses in diseases of the
eye, ear, throat and lungs, nervous diseases and surgery. He later entered the
National Normal University of Lebanon, Ohio, from which institution he was
graduated November 13, 1889. Dr. Reed returned to his home and for three years
engaged in practice in his native county. During this time he was married to Miss
Eloise Smith, a daughter of Wright Smith of Sullivan County, and to them one
child. Royal C., was born. In 1893 he came to Highland, where he has since built
up an extensive practice. He is a member of the County Medical Society and the
New York State and American Medical Associations. He was appointed Examiner
in Lunacy in 1893 and in 1898 was passed and licensed by the State Board of
Pharmacy, and admitted by the full State Board in 1901. He then opened a drug
store in Highland, which he is now conducting. He makes a specialty of the
treatment of cancer and has successfully treated cases from all sections of the
country. He has lately fitted up a private hospital for medical and surgical cases.

BIOGRAPHICAL.

665

Dr. Reed comes from a family of three children. The elder brother, Seth J.,
now resides at Glen Wild, Sullivan County, and his sister Mary is the wife of
Cogswell Kinne of Maplewood, Sullivan County. In politics the Doctor is a
Republican. Socially he is identified with F. and A. M., being a thirty-second
degree Mason and a member of the Blue Lodge, Shrine, Commandery, etc.

C, GORDON REEL, general manager of the Kingston Consolidated Rail-
road Company, was born in St. Louis, Mo., April 21, 1873. He attended the
public schools of that city and later entered Washington University, graduating
from the civil and electrical engineering departments in 1893, completing a five
years’ course. He first took a position as engineer on the St. Louis Waterworks
extension. In 1894 he was in charge of the construction of the large high service
pumping station. No. 3, in St. Louis. In 1895 he constructed the St. Louis, Kirk-
wood and Merrimac Highland R. R., one of the first inter-urban roads built in
America. He was then appointed chief engineer of the Lindell R. R. Co., now
the St. Louis Transit Company. In 1896 he resigned that position and became
associated with Charles H. Ledlie, consulting engineer of the City of St. Louis,
and engaged in all kinds of engineering work through the South and West. In
1897 he was appointed Superintendent of the Colonial City Traction Company of
Kingston and designed and built the subway at the West Shore station.

He resigned three years later and returned to St. Louis as Principal Assistant in
Mr. Ledlie’s ofiice and while there designed the fifteen-thousand horse-power
station for the Amsterdam, Fonda, Johnstown and Gloversville Electric Company.

In 1901 he accepted the position he now holds as manager of the Kingston
Consolidated R. R. Co., and two years later was elected to the office of Vice-
President of the Company.

ANTHONY D. RELYEA, of Whiteport, was born at that place in 1845. He
obtained his education in the schools of the neighborhood and was thereafter
employed in the quarries and at various other occupations during the earlier years
of his life. In 1864 he married Charlotte Ann Bates of Rosendale, N. Y., and
twelve children have been born to them as follows; Edward J., Jane B., deceased;
Lovena, who married Edward Mowle and has two children ; Willie, deceased ;
Olive, married John Mirchell of Cornwall, England, and has one child; Eva,
deceased; Amy, Blanch, Mabel L, Frederick, Charlotte and Chauncy D. For a
number of years Mr. Relyea conducted a cooperage business. He later engaged in
butchering and also dealt in wagons, sleighs, harness, etc. He now owns the
depot property at Whiteport, some five miles from Kingston, on the Wallkill Valley
Railroad, and deals in groceries, provisions, flour, feed and coal. This business
has for several years past been under the management of his son-in-law, Edward
Mowle.

Politically Mr. Relyea is a Republican and a leader and worker in his party. He
has held several important offices, having been a member of the County Boa :d of
Supervisors, Town Collector, Commissioner of Highways, and Coroner, and is the
only Republican in the town of Rosendale who has held an office three successive

666

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

terms. He also holds the office of Postmaster of Whiteport. Socially he holds
membership with the Knights of Pythias, the I. O. O. F. and the I. O. F.

HENRY H. REYNOLDS, the son of Abraham and Sarah (Folger) Reynolds,
was born in the City of New York in i8ii With his family he removed from
New York to Kingston in 1841, and from then until his death, November 23, 1868,
was identified with every movement for the improvement and advancement of
the place in material, moral and religious matters.

The State of New York Bank having been organized April 15, 1853, Mr. Reynolds
was elected its Vice-President and authorized to discharge the duties of cashier,
teller and bookkeeper on the 13th day of June following. This position he held
until the 23d day of October, 1868, when he was chosen President of the bank to
succeed Judge Henry Brodhead, Jr., who had died. Few men in Kingston have
occupied a position of more commanding influence than he. To a remarkably acute
intellect, strengthened by critical study of the best writers, was added a practical
bent with a thorough knowledge of business in all its complications and a genial,
companionable nature. A systematic, constant and efficient worker in every field
of Christian effort in Kingston, his memory long will be affectionately cherished
in the old town.

HON. JACOB RICE. — Among the able men of Ulster County who have attained
high public office and have reflected credit upon the Democratic party, one of the
most prominent is Jacob Rice of Kingston, whose long and distinguished service
in both branches of the Legislature has given him a State reputation. Mr. Rice was
born in the City of Treves, Germany, March 7, 1847, and was but two years of
age when his parents came to America. The family first located in New York
City, and four years later removed to Rondout. Mr. Rice received his education
in the public schools of Kingston. After leaving school he obtained employment
on the D. & H. Canal, and with characteristic thrift began saving his surplus
earnings with which he later established a furniture business in Rondout. He
conducted the business sixteen years with great success, building it up to large
proportions ; he then sold out and engaged in freighting, transporting and con-
tracting on a large scale, under the name of Schoonmaker & Rice, opened branch
offices in New York and other cities in the State and became one of the largest
and most successful contractors in Eastern New York. In 1890 he established
a boat building business in Kingston, which he still owns.

In 1877 Mr. Rice married a daughter of Col. John Derrenbacher, by whom he
had ten children. He is a veteran of the Civil War and a member of Pratt Post, G.
A. R. He was elected Coroner in 1881, and was a delegate to the Democratic
National Convention in 1900. He served five successive terms in the Assembly
and two terms in the State Senate. In his long service in the Legislature Mr. Rice
was the firm and constant champion of the cause of the workingman, and his
entire political record is a thoroughly honorable one. In all public enterprises
Mr. Rice is ever ready to do his share as a loyal citizen, who has the welfare of his
community at heart.

BIOGRAPHICAL.

667

HARRISON H. RICHARD, who conducts a general mercantile business in
Montela, New York, is a son of George B. and Eliza J. (Hill) Richard. He was
bom in Montela in 1881 and obtained his education at the public schools of that
place. He then engaged with his father in the management of their farm and
store until 1904, when he purchased the store, and continues the business alone, also
filling the office of Deputy Postmaster. Mr. Richard is a member of the Methodist
Episcopal Church and is socially identified with the Knights of the Maccabees.

He married Miss Frances Cynthia Groo of Sullivan County and they have one
son, S. Groo. Mr. Richard enjoys an extensive trade and is numbered among the
leading young business men of Wawarsing Township.

W. H. RIDER, who has been engaged in the sale of pianos and musical instru-
ments in Kingston for the past twenty years, is numbered among the city’s most
progressive business men.

His trade equals that of any piano house on the Hudson and a corps of salesmen
place his goods in Ulster and nine adjoining counties. His warerooms, at 304
Wall street, occupy three floors and are stocked with various standard grades of
musical instruments.

Mr. Rider is a member of all the prominent fraternal organizations in Kingston.

W. C. RISELEY, of Longyear, a prominent agriculturist of Shandaken Township,
was born May 27, 1864, in Woodstock. The Riseley family has held an honored place
in Ulster County affairs for several generations. Our subject moved to Longyear
some eighteen years ago, and now owns several hundred acres of land and is also
engaged in the lumber business. He is a member of the F. & A. M. and of the Re-
formed Dutch Church. His family consists of wife, formerly Miss Adelia Van De
Bogart, and eight children, Mabel, Addie, Catherine, Louis, Gertrude, Dorothy,
lola and Egbert.

HENRY RITTER of Rifton, N. Y., color mixer for the J. W. Dimick Company,
is a native of Fishkill Landing. He was born November 15, 1871, and has been
engaged with the J. W. Dimick Company for eighteen years in the capacity of mixer
of colors: He is identified with local affairs, has served as Trustee and Treasurer
of the village of Rifton, and is associated with numerous benevolent and social
organizations, among which we mention F. and A. M., No. 343, Rondout, N. Y. ;
Mount Horeb Chapter No. 75, R. A. M. ; Rondout Commandery No. 52, K. T. ;
Garfield Lodge No. 422, I. O. O. F. ; Pokonoie Tribe No. 344, I. O. R. M. ; Rond-
out Club; Weiner Hose Company, Kingston; Cornell Hose Company, Rondout,
Etc.

WILLARD D. ROCKEFELLER, who has chosen Ulster County for his country
seat, is a native of Albany, N. Y., and obtained his education at the Normal School
and Business College of that city. He then engaged in the hotel business, being
associated with the Allanhurst Inn, in New Jersey, for a time, after which he
spent four years in California, in connection with the. Maryland Hotel at Pasadena.

668

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

In 1904 Mr. Rockefeller purchased his present estate on the Hudson, near the
village of West Park, one of the choicest residential portions of Ulster County,
which has been justly termed the garden spot of America.

ALONZO ROSE was born at North Haverstraw, now Stony Point, Rockland
County, New York, in 1840, and in the district schools of that county he received
his education. He then engaged in boating and for thirty years owned and com-
manded vessels plying along the river and sound. In 1883 he moved to Dutchess
Junction and engaged with Aldrich Bros. & Co. in the manufacture of brick. In
1890 he came to Kingston and engaged in the brick business, in which he has been
very successful, having increased his annual output from four million to twelve
million brick within the past fifteen years. He married Emma J. Wilkins of
Rockland County and their two sons, Irving J. and Alonzo K., assist their father
in the management of the brick yards and store.

Mr. Rose has always been an active member of the Prohibition party and in 1881
\vas elected Excise Commissioner, and was returned to the office at two subsequent
elections, serving in all five years. Mr. Rose is numbered among the leading
manufacturers of Ulster County.

J. GRAHAM ROSE was born in Philipsport, Sullivan County, N. Y., August 15,
1866. He attended the district schools of the neighborhood and Delaware Academy
at Delhi, New York. In 1886 he came to Kingston and entered the employ of the
Delaware & Hudson Canal Company as clerk. His promotion was rapid and he
was given charge of general outside work, acting as Superintendent of Docks. He
continued in this position until the canal was abandoned. In 1899 his services
were secured by S. D. Coykendall and he was given charge of various interests.
He is at present Treasurer of the Consolidated Rosendale Cement Company.

Mr. Rose is a member of the Kingston, Twaalfskill and Rondout Clubs. Politically
he is a Republican. His father, William R. Rose, is President of the Home National
Bank of Ellenville, New York.

W. C. ROSE, hardware dealer of Ellenville, N. Y., was born at Phillipsport, Sul-
livan County, N. Y., November 28, 1868. He attended the local schools and
Claverack College. After leaving college Mr. Rose was engaged as division foreman
of the Delaware & Hudson Canal for eight years. Upon the canal being aban-
doned, he established himself in the hardware business (in 1898), which he has
built up until, today, it is the most extensive in this section of the county, embracing
a full line of hardware and all branches usually carried under this head. He
also does heating, roofing, plumbing, etc., and employs about ten hands constantly.
He is prominently identified with the best business and social interest of Ellenville,
and is Vice-President of the Scoresby Hose Company.

Mr. Rose married Miss Amy Bradley Childs, a daughter of George B. Childs, late
Secretary and Treasurer of the Ellenville Savings Institution. They have three
children, George B., born in 1900, Eliasur, born in 1902, and William R., born in
1905.

BIOGRAPHICAL.

669

W. R. ROSE of Ellenville, N. Y., President of the Home National Bank, was born
at Cuddebackville in the town of Deer Park, Orange County, N. Y., in 1834. He
received his education in the schools of Goshen and Bethany. His father was for
forty years Superintendent of the D, & H. Canal, which he helped construct, and
his brother was its General Superintendent at the time the canal was abandoned.

Mr. Rose conducted a mercantile business in Sullivan County for many years.
He represented that county in the Assembly for one term, and was for nine years
Superintendent of the Poor for Sullivan County. In 1892 Mr. Rose was elected
President of the Home National Bank of Ellenville, and has since made his home
in that village. His family consists of three children, Kate L., Graham and W. C.
Rose. In politics Mr. Rose is a Republican. He has always been regarded as a
most energetic and successful business man and valued citizen.

GEORGE W. ROSS, M.D., was born in Albany County, New York, July i,
1876. After finishing his studies at the Albany High School, he entered the Albany
Medical College, graduating as a physician and surgeon in 1899. He located in
Port Ewen, Ulster County, New York, the same year, where he enjoys an extensive
general practice.

Dr. Ross is a member of the County and State Medical Societies, and is identified
with the Masonic Order, including the Mystic Shrine. He was joined in marriage
with Miss Dulcie Holt of Ulster County.

ALBERT ROWE, President of the Village of Saugerties, was born in Albany,
May 14, 1846. He attended the Albany schools, and was engaged in farming, stone
cutting, and the meat market business up to the time he entered the employ of
Swartzchild & Sulzburger, wholesale meat dealers, as their local representative and
manager. Mr. Rowe has lived in Ulster County since 1861, and has been manager
for the above firm for the past ten years. He was elected President of the village
of Saugerties in 1896, and has served in that office continuously since that time. He
is a staunch Republican. He was elected Excise Commissioner as the candidate
of both parties, and has served upon the Board of Health.

Mr. Rowe’s family consists of wife, Sarah C. (Whittaker) Rowe, and six
children, Herbert, Frank, Harry, Albert, Jr., Benjamin and Anna. Mr. Rowe is
accredited with being one of the most practical officials that Saugerties has ever
had, and has served longer than any other in the office of President of the village.

GUSTAVE C. RUNDEL, Superintendent of the Kingston City Almshouse, was
born in Kingston, N. Y., in 1863. After finishing his studies at the Ulster Academy
he engaged in the barber business and has conducted a shop on the Strand since
1889. He also manufactures a hair tonic which is extensively sold throughout
Ulster County and adjacent territory.

Mr. Rundel is a staunch Republican and takes an active part in promoting the
interests of his party. He has served five years as City Committeeman of the
Sixth Ward and was appointed to his present office. May, 1906. Mr. Rundel is a
member of the Masonic Fraternity, Knights of Pythias, I. O. O. F., and Knights and

670

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

Ladies of Honor. He married Miss Martha Dittus of Kingston. Two children,
Helen Carrie and Raymond John, have been born to them.

JOHN RUSK, attorney of Marlborough, was born in Cold Spring, Putnam
County, New York, November 21, 1861. He attended the schools of that place,
Wappingers Falls and Marlborough. He studied law wth his father, John Rusk,
Sr., was admitted to the bar in 1890, and has since been engaged in practice in
Marlborough, where he also conducts an insurance business. He has served as
Justice of the Peace for many years until a few months since, when he resigned
that office.

John Rusk, Sr., was born in 1838, near Belfast, Ireland, of Scotch-Irish parents.
He came to America when seven years of age, was educated at the Fort Edward
Institute, studied law with Samuel John Owen, then District Attorney of Putnam
County, and was admitted to the bar at Brooklyn, New York, December 15, 1871.
He practiced first in Cold Spring, then in Wappingers Falls, and in 1877 came to
Marlborough, where he conducted a law practice until his death. May 9, 1905. In
1898 he purchased the farm on the banks of the Hudson, where his son now
resides. This is the historical Major Lewis DuBois property. The house, built in
1751, was fired on by the British during their sail up the Hudson, a more extended
mention of which appears in another part of this volume.

It is also supposed that the Masons met in this house and expelled Benedict
Arnold from the order soon after his act of treason.

DR. CHARLES OLIVER SAHLER of Kingston-on-Hudson, Ulster County,
New York, is a descendant of Abraham von Sahler, who came to this country in
1736, from Saxony, where his immediate family were in the diplomatic service, and
his ancestry one of the most ancient in the nobility; the ancestor being Henry von
der Sahle, who participated in the great German tournaments of the tenth century.
The American ancestor settled on a large estate, on the banks of the Perkiomen,
in the town of the same name, twenty-five miles from the city of Philadelphia, Penn-
sylvania, and was one of the most prominent men in that region. He was united in
marriage to Miss Elizabeth DuBois, who was a double descendant of Louis DuBois,
a Huguenot, descended from one of the most ancient families of France. Abraham
von Sahler was the father of several children, of whom Abraham, the second, the
forefather of the elder branch, and Daniel, settled among their mother’s family in
Ulster County, and both resided in the town of Rochester. Abraham, the second,
married Trynje van Wagenen, and their eldest son, Solomon, married Eleanor Per-
rine, whose ancestors went over from Normandy to England with William the
Conqueror, settling on the island of Jersey and participated in the Crusades; her
American ancestor was Daniel Perrine, who came to New Jersey with his kinsman.
Governor Philip de Cartaret, a cousin of Sir George de Cartaret, Baronet. Abra-
ham, the fourth, married Catherine, only child of Judge Richard Davis and Wyntje
Robinson, and their son Solomon married Caroline Winfield, daughter of Casperus
and Jane Van Aken Winfield, and they became the parents of Dr. Charles Oliver
Sahler. Caroline Winfield Sahler was a descendant of the De Graffs, Van Nos-

BIOGRAPHICAL. 671

trands, Frelinghuysens, Van Berghs, Terhunes and Kools, and her grandfather and
great-grandfather participated in the Revolutionary War.

Dr. Charles Oliver Sahler, only son of Solomon and Caroline (Winfield) Sahler,
was born June 23, 1854, at Ulster Park, in the town of Esopus, the home of his
maternal grandparents. When he was only a few months old he was removed to
his father’s farm, which was formerly his grandfather’s home, at Kyserike, in the
Rondout valley. His elementary education was acquired in the district school,
where he had the extreme good fortune of having a teacher of wide experience,
John H. van Wagenen, who was formerly a principal of the University of Northern
Pennsylvania. At the age of fourteen he decided to study medicine, and at the age
of seventeen he began teaching school during the winter months, continuing this
occupation until he was twenty years old. He then entered the medical department
of Columbia University (College of Physicians and Surgeons), of New York City,
and after taking the usual three-years’ course he was graduated with the degree of
Doctor of Medicine, in 1878. He returned to Kyserike and commenced the practice
of his profession, where his ability as a physician being quickly recognized, he soon
had a large and lucrative country practice. After thirteen years of experience in
medical work he opened an office in Kingston. Two years later Dr. Sahler pur-
chased a beautiful spacious mansion with ample grounds in the outskirts of the
city, and converted it into a sanitarium for the treatment of mental, nervous and
functional diseases. It was about this time that he began to devote much time and
thought to psycho-therapeutics. During the last few years Dr. Sahler’s skill and
fame in this branch of therapeutics have spread in all directions; the sanitarium
has been twice enlarged and cottages built, and yet is inadequate to accommodate
the number of patients, many of whom are sent there by their family physicians.
This sanitarium is unique in its remedial methods, it being the only one in the
United States where psycho-therapeutics is the agent principally used, although
there are several prominent American physicians who are decided exponents of it.

Dr. Sahler has contributed to several magazines, and for a time he occupied the
chair of nervous diseases and suggestive therapeutics of the Post-Graduate School,
the Eastern College of Electro-Therapeutics and Psychological Medicine at Phila-
delphia. He is also one of the vice-presidents of the American Association of Phy-
sicians ^nd Surgeons, and a member of the American Psychological, Medical and
Surgical Society, and the Medico-Legal Society. We frequently hear Dr. Sah-
ler’s name mentioned as lecturer before the Phrenological Institute, and medical and
psychic study societies in New York and New Jersey.

In 1880, Dr. Sahler joined in marriage with Miss Jennie Sahler, daughter of
James and Sarah (Alliger) Sahler. They have no children of their own, but have
one by adoption. Miss Nellie Sahler.

J. LEONARD SALTZMANN was born in Kingston, April 2, 1866, and obtained
his education at the public schools. He spent five years in New Haven, Conn., in
the meat business with his uncle. In 1885 he returned to Kingston and became
associated with his father in the management of his bakery establishment, which was
continued until his father’s death in 1902, when he purchased the estate and se-

672

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

cured sole ownership of the business, which has developed rapidly in the past four
years.

Mr. Saltzmann married Emma Weislogel of Elizabeth, N. J., and they have two
children living. Socially he is identified with the Masons, Odd Fellows and Knights
and Ladies of Honor. He is numbered among the substantial business men of
Rondout and his friends are legion.

John W. Saltzmann, father of our subject, was born in Germany in 1834, and
located in Rondout in 1853. He was employed with local cement companies about
seven years and in i860 established his bakery, which achieved such well-merited
success. Mr. Saltzmann was a member of the Kingston Board of Trade and its first
vice-president. He was a director of the Rondout Savings Bank and affiliated
with various fraternal organizations of the city. He was one of the organizers of
the English Lutheran Church of Rondout and was an officer in the church from its
organization until his death.

WARREN SAMMONS of Rosendale, N. Y., was born in that village December
23, 1858. After receiving a liberal education he entered business as an assistant
to his father, with whom he has always been associated. They conduct a distillery
and wholesale and retail liquor business. They also conducted Rosendale’s leading
hotel up to the time it was destroyed by fire. The elder Sammons served as Super-
intendent of the Poor for nine terms and their establishment has for many years
been the headquarters for political gatherings of the town.

Warren Sammons is one of Rosendale’s most energetic citizens and is success-
fully managing a thriving establishment.

JOHN SAUER, Hotel Keeper on the Kingston and Saugerties Road, eight miles
from Kingston and four from Saugerties, erected this hotel in 1903. He can accom-
modate thirty-five guests. The scenery here is unexcelled and there is excellent
fishing and boating, while the hotel accommodations and service are all that can
be desired. Mr. Sauer is a German by birth and a most genial and accommodating
host. He has been in this country for thirty-five years and has a family of three
children, Josephine, Augusta and John.

PHILIP SCHANTZ, of Highland, has for a number of years been intimately
associated with the business and political interests of Ulster County. He was
born in Lloyd Township, June 6, 1858, was educated in the district school and the
Fort Edward Institute in Washington County. He learned the trade of miller
with his father, afterward working for Geo. W. Pratt of Lloyd for some seven years
as a journeyman miller, and the next four years he was in partnership with him. In
1884 he started what is now the Highland Ice Company. In 1888 he added to his
other enterprises the grist mills formerly managed by Mr. Eckert, and in 1890
secured control of the Highland Cold Storage House. In 1890 he purchased the
merchant mill of Z. Eckert on the New Paltz Turnpike. He is President of the
Poughkeepsie Elevator Company and President and organizer of the Highland
Knitting Mills.

BIOGRAPHICAL.

673

From this it may readily be inferred that Mr. Schantz has ever been a busy man,
yet he has always found time to devote to the interests of the public and was but
twenty-one years of age when he was elected one of the Collectors of his town. In
1888 he was elected Supervisor and re-elected annually until elected Sheriff in 1894
by a majority of 1,285 votes. He has frequently been a delegate to the County
and State Republican Conventions and is at present serving in his old position as
Supervisor.

Mr. Schantz was married on March 9, 1892, to Martha S. Cluett of Poughkeepsie
and they have one son, Cluett Schantz, born in 1900. Mr. Schantz is identified
with the F. and A. M., Mystic Shrine, Knights of Pythias, Elks, Odd Fellows, Loyal
Americans, Red Men and an honorary member of the G. A. R.

REV. A. SCHMIDTKONZ, son of Mathias and Barbara (Weis) Schmidtkonz,
was born at Ettenstadt, Bavaria, Germany, in 1858, and obtained his classical and
theological education at the famous institutions of his native country. In 1878 he
came to America, and attended for a year the Theological Seminary of the Lutheran
Synod of Iowa, to perfect himself in the English language. He was ordained at
Cedar Falls, Iowa, July 2, 1879, and was then sent to Kansas to engage in mission
work, where he remained until 1882, establishing a number of German Lutheran
congregations. He was then transferred to Port Chester, New York, where he
had charge of St. Paul’s Church until 1888, when he was removed to Rondout to
become pastor of the German Evangelical Lutheran Church, ministering to his
congregation in the German language.

Mr. Schmidtkonz has been identified with many important offices of the Evan-
gelical Lutheran Ministerium of the State of New York and from 1889 to 1899 was
President of the Albany Conference of that organization. September 12, 1881, he
was united in marriage at Tipton, Kansas, to Anna Berkemeier, daughter of the
well-known Rev. W. Berkemeier, who founded the German Lutheran Emigrant
Home of New York. Five children have blessed this union.

JULIUS SCHMITT, of Malden, is a native of New York City. He is conduct-
ing a hotel in Malden of which he has been proprietor for the past eight years.
Prior to taking the Malden Hotel he was engaged in the same business elsewhere
for a number of years, and is thoroughly proficient in the art of catering to the
public. Mr. Schmitt is a popular and conscientious business man and is identified
with various local institutions. His family consists of wife, Bertha (Botchtold)
Schmitt, and four children, Margaret, Robert C., Anthony J. and Wilminia B.

THE GLENERIE FALLS HOTEL. — This noted hostelry is one of the old
Ulster landmarks. Located on the King’s Highway, a few miles south of the vil-
lage of Saugerties, it has for years been a summer resort for New Yorkers and a
favorite stopping place for tourists. A century and more ago this was one of the
prominent taverns between New York and Albany and has no doubt entertained
many distinguished visitors. Its present proprietor, Mr. C. Schoentag, purchased
the property in 1890, and previous to that time it had for nearly a hundred years
been in the possession of the Martin family.

674

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

Mr. Schoentag has successfully conducted this hostelry for sixteen years and
entertains during the summer months from seventy-five to one hundred guests.

JOHN D, SCHOONMAKER. — The progenitor of the Schoonmaker family
in America was Hendrick Jochemsen Schoonmaker, a native of Hamburg, Ger-
many. He came to this country in the military service of Holland, and first settled
at Albany, as shown by the records, previous to 1655. In these records frequent
mention of his name appears, indicating his standing and showing him to have
been a man of considerable wealth and importance. He loaned money to Governor
Stuyvesant “in time of need,” and was active in the military duties made necessary
by the troublous times, being a lieutenant “in the Company of His Noble Honor
the Director-General.”

In 1659 this company was ordered to Esopus (Kingston) to assist the settlers in
their defense of the Indians. The company was soon disbanded and the members
received from the government grants of land lying in the vicinity of Esopus.
Hendrick Jochemsen sold his Albany property and became a resident of Wiltwyck,
where he became as prominent as at Albany, his military experience being fre-
quently called in requisition in their dealings with the Indians.

When the Indians destroyed Hurley (the new village) in 1663 and attacked Wilt-
wyck he fought bravely in its defense and was severely wounded.

He married Elsie Janse Van Brustede, of New Amsterdam. The court records
of Kingston say “he was recently deceased, November 7, 1682.”

Jochem, their eldest son, became one of the first settlers in Rochester town-
ship, and was one of the first trustees under letters patent from Queen Anne. At
the time of the burning of Hurley he was taken captive by the Indians, but after-
ward succeeded in effecting his escape.

Captain Frederick Schoonmaker, third in descent from Hendrick Jochemsen, was
one of the patriots and soldiers of the Revolution, who gave himself and his prop-
erty to his country in its struggle for freedom from the Briitsh yoke. He raised
two companies of soldiers, one of mounted volunteers, which he as captain com-
manded, and bore their expenses through the entire war. He owned some forty
improved farms in Marbletown and all but one of these, together with his personal
estate, were freely sacrificed in furnishing funds for the men and provisions for
the Continental Army. As a result of his patriotism a price was set upon his head,
and he had many narrow escapes from Tories and Indians. He fitted up his resi-
dence in Kingston as a fort and it became a refuge of safety for women and chil-
dren, and harbored many families after the burning of the city.

John D. Schoonmaker, son of Hiram and great-grandson of Captain Frederick
Schoonmaker, was born in Kingston in 1864. After finishing his studies at the
Ulster Academy, he was connected with the Cornell Steamboat Co. until 1901.
From 1902 to 1905 he was president of the American Ice Co. and is now largely
interested in the ice and transportation business.

Mr. Schoonmaker is a member of Kingston, Knollwood, Twaalfskill and New
York Athletic Clubs.

In 1898 he was united in marriage to Miss Alberta L., daughter of Hon. Thomas

BIOGRAPHICAL. 675

E. Benedict, of Ellenville, N. Y. They have three children, Dorothy, Louise and
John D., Jr.

Mr, Schoonmaker is one of Kingston’s most highly respected citizens and with
his family occupies a beautiful residence on Chestnut street, overlooking the
Hudson.

JULIUS SCHOONMAKER, Custodian of the Old Senate House, Kingston,
N. Y., was born and educated in Kingston. His father, the late Marius Schoon-
maker, who preceded him as custodian of this historic structure, was born in Kings-
ton, April 24, 1811, and died January 5, 1894. He was a son of Zachariah and
Cornelia Marius (Groen) Schoonmaker, and sixth in descent from Hendrick
Jochemsen Schoonmaker, who came to America from Hamburg in 1654 in the mili*
tary service of the Dutch West India Company, being a Lieutenant in the “Company
of his Noble Honor, the Director General.” The record shows he advanced money,
in 1654, to Governor Stuyvesant “in time of need.” He died in Kingston in 1681.

Marius Schoonmaker was one of Ulster’s representative men. A graduate of
Yale College in 1830, he took up the study of law, and in 1833 was admitted to the
Bar. He opened an office in Kingston and his long and successful legal and political
career has been equaled by few of Ulster’s native sons.

Mr, Schoonmaker was elected to the State Senate in the fall of 1849. In 1850
he was elected to Congress from the Tenth Congressional District by the Whigs.
Declining a renomination he returned to his law practice.

In January, 1854, he was appointed Auditor of the Canal Department of the State
of New York, and one year later, by the appointment of the Governor and approval
of the Senate, was transferred to the office of Superintendent of Banking. He
resigned that office the year following. In 1867 he was a member of the Committee
on Canals in the convention for the revision of the Constitution of New York,

He was president of the Kingston Board of Education nine years, and president
of the village three years. He was secretary of the Wiltwyck Rural Cemetery at
the time of his death. Mr. Schoonmaker wrote the “History of Kingston from its
early settlement down to 1820,” which was published in 1888. This is a most
authentic and valuable work, and it clearly entitles him to be regarded as the
Historian of Kingston, He was also writing the life of the celebrated artist, John
Vanderlyn, at the time of his death.

On December 13, 1837, he married Elizabeth Van Wyck, daughter of Rev. Cor-
nelius D. Westbrook, D. D., of Kingston. Four children were born to them, as
follows : Capt. Cornelius Marius, a noted Commander in the U. S. Navy, who was
drowned at Apia, Samoa, during the hurricane of March 15, 1889; Henry Barnard,
a talented young attorney, who died in 1867 at the age of twenty-three ; Julius, the
present Custodian of the Senate House, and Ella, the wife of Henry D. Darrow, of
Kingston.

Cornelius C,, the grandfather of Marius, was a man of national reputation and a
native of Shawangunk, Ulster County. He was a member of the first State \s-
sembly at Kingston in 1777, and held that office through eleven sessions. In 1790
he was elected to the U. S. Congress, and was a member of the State Legislature

6;6

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

in 1795. He was also a member of the convention of 1788 to deliberate upon the
Federal Constitution.

J. U. SCHOONMAKER, of Ellenville, of the well-known drug firm of Patterson
& Schoonmaker, is a native of Onondaga County. He was born in 1878, educated in
the Ellenville schools and the Ulster Academy, and studied pharmacy. He passed
his examination before the State Board in 1899, and in 1902 formed a partnership
with Mr. Patterson. Mr. Schoonmaker is a member of one of Ulster County’s pioneer
families, which has borne its full share in public affairs since Colonial days. He
was married October 3, 1905, to Anna F. Butcher, a daughter of George H. Butcher,
who was for many years treasurer of the Ellenville Savings Bank, and who is now
living retired. Upon July 8, 1906, Mrs. Schoonmaker departed this life, deeply
mourned by her husband and friends. She was an accomplished lady of most
pleasing address and her memory is highly cherished by all who were honored by
her acquaintance.

GEORGE F. SCHUMAN, eldest son of Charles and Elizabeth (VanBeck) Schu-
man, was born at Fly Mountain, October 15, 1859. He obtained his education at
the district schools and Ulster Academy. Having decided to adopt the profession
of an architect, he began studying for that purpose at Rondout, but as his services
were needed in his father’s hotel he gave up his intentions and returned home.
He studied music with Jerome Williams, of Rondout, and organized a band of
which he was the leader for a time, and which was a popular feature at Fly Moun-
tain. He is now the genial proprietor of the “Schuman Hotel,” which his father
built in 1855, a most pleasant resort for travelers as well as permanent guests.

October 21, 1879, Mr. Schuman was united in marriage to Francis N., daughter
of Richard Wei. They are the parents of the following children: Lena F., born
August 19, 1880; Charles VanBeck, born Becember 4, 1881 ; George W. (deceased) ;
Harry H., born March 21, 1886; Florence J., born August 21, 1890; Clara B., born
May 21, 1895, and Frederick Irving, born May 31, 1897.

Mr. Schuman is identified with the Masonic Fraternity, the I. O. O. F., the K.
of P., and the Odd Fellows’ Encampment.

ALVAH SHERWOOB STAPLES, one of the oldest business men in this city
and well known throughout the State, was born in Marlborough, Ulster County,
New York, April 25, 1832.

He was the son of Stephen and Jane Case Staples, and grandson of Bavid Staples,
first Judge of Ulster County.

He was educated in the Public Schools of Kingston, whither his father moved
when he was eight years old.

He was interested in general merchandise from 1852 until i860, when he estab-
lished the wholesale flour, feed and grain business, in which he continued until his
death.

In 1876 he established the Arcade Mills at the corner of Hasbrouck Avenue and
Mill Street, where he carried on an extensive trade throughout the State, but prin-
cipally in Greene, Ulster and Belaware Counties.

BIOGRAPHICAL. 677

He also established a plant for the manufacture of brick at East Kingston, and
owned a brick plant at Port Ewen, enjoying a good business in that line.

For twenty-five years or more he was President of the Rondout Savings Bank,
and for a quarter of a century Director of the First National Bank of Rondout;
Director of the Ulster and Delaware Railroad, President of Montrepose Cemetery,
and a member of the Rondout Lodge No. 343, Free and Accepted Masons. For a
great many years he was a regular attendant of the Rondout Presbyterian Church.

Mr. Staples took an active interest in everything concerning the advancement and
prosperity of the city, and in politics was a staunch Republican.

September 8, 1906, one week before he passed away, Mr. and Mrs. Staples cele-
brated their golden wedding at their home, having with them all their children and
two grandchildren, Marion Staples Cadwell and Mildred S. Morse.

He died at his home, Knowl Lawn, Broadway, September 16, 1906. His family
consisted of his wife, Mary Stitt Rouse, whom he married September 8, 1856. The
names of the children are: Carrie S., wife of John Cadwell of Jamestown, N. Y. ;
Henry S. and Ida S., who died in infancy; Alvaetta S., wife of J. Wilton Morse of
Toronto, Canada; Anne R., wife of B. Morss Tremper of Kingston, N. Y. ; Seth
Stitt and Alva Sherwood.

W. O. SCHWARZWELDER, of Chichester, Ulster County, proprietor of the
manufacturing plant located there and of the greater portion of the village, is
worthy of a somewhat extended biography. He has done much that is creditable
in bringing the old chair works to their present state of efficiency and in beautifying
Chichester, a charming village of some five hundred inhabitants situated in the
Catskills. It is a most important life work even in this age of progress that has
been accomplished by Mr. Schwarzwelder and one which will place his name high
among the liberal-minded and philanthropic manufacturers of this country, for he
took the works and village when they were in the last degree of decay, infused
new life, installed new machinery, erected new houses for work people, and en-
larged upon everything. He built club houses, bowling alleys, brought in amuse-
ments, dance hall, billiard tables, lodge hall, fountains, constructed artificial lakes,
new roads and parks, improved the school, and to-day there is not a brighter spot
in old Ulster or a more contented and prosperous people than can be found in
Chichester.

The man who has accomplished this is still young. He was bOrn in Brooklyn,
New York, August 6, 1854, and is therefore only fifty-two years of age. He at-
tended school in New York and finished at the University of Munich in Germany.
In 1897 he secured these works, then carried on as a chair factory exclusively.
Since that time his great executive ability has become thoroughly apparent in the
work he has accomplished.

JOHN W. SEARING was born in Saugerties, N. Y., March 22, 1855. He
attended the Saugerties Institute, and graduated from Rutgers College with the
degree of A. B., 1874. He then read law v/ith the Hon. Augustus Schoonmaker
of Kingston, and in 1877 was admitted to the Bar. From 1886 to 1897 under th«

6;8

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

firm name of Kraft & Searing, he was engaged in the publication of the Kingston
Leader, He then devoted his entire time to law practice, and in 1899 the law firm
of Brinnier & Searing was formed, continuing until 1905, when Mr. Searing be-
came Assistant General Counsel for the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company. Since
September, 1906, he has been associated with the law firm of Parker, Hatch &
Sheehan in New York.

Mr. Searing is a member of the University, Brooklyn, Bernard and Kingston
Clubs. He is identified with the Masonic fraternity, and in politics is a Democrat.

HECTOR SEARS, Attorney of Gardiner, is a native of Pine Bush in the town
of Rochester, Ulster County. He was born, July 27, 1843, attended the common
schools and later pursued his studies * at the Academy in Montgomery, Orange
County. When the Civil War broke out, he was a clerk in a wholesale crockery
store in New York City. He at once enlisted in the Seventy-first N. Y. State
Militia, for a term of three months, and with his company participated in the first
battle of Bull Run. At the expiration of his time he re-enlisted in the 131st N. Y.
V. and remained until January 30, 1864, when he was discharged to accept promo-
tion as Second Lieutenant in the same regiment, and was later commissioned First
Lieutenant of that regiment. On May 27, 1863, in the charge on Port Hudson, he
was severely wounded in the left arm; the shoulder joint was removed and he lay
for two days in the field under a tree, and was then taken to the old Barracks
Hospital at New Orleans. Some months later, having sufficiently recovered, he
was made a clerk in the Quartermaster’s Department of the Army of the Gulf.

In November, 1864, he was appointed Second Lieutenant in the Seventh Veteran
Reserve Corps, and assigned as Assistant Military Superintendent of the War De-
partment, and a few months later was assigned charge of Camp Casey, a white
refugee camp on Arlington Heights, opposite Washington, where he remained until
active hostilities ceased. Mr. Sears was then assigned to duty in the south, where
he was made Provost Marshal and Assistant Military Superintendent of nine
counties, with headquarters at Fredericksburg. He was afterward made Provost
Marshal and Military Superintendent of King George County, Virginia, and his
territory was enlarged from time to time, until as Provost Marshal and Superin-
tendent, he had charge over Stafford, King George, Spottsylvania and Caroline
Counties and the City of Fredericksburg. He remained in charge there until
January i, 1868. He was breveted as First Lieutenant, and Captain of U. S. Vol.
Infantry for bravery at Port Hudson.

During the time he acted as Military Superintendent he was also serving as an
officer in the Freedman’s Bureau, and was retained in that capacity until January,
1869, when he returned to his home in Gardiner.

In 1875 he took up the study of law with his uncle, John P. Sears, of Mont-
gomery, and was admitted to the Bar at Saratoga, New York, September 5, 1879.
He then opened his present office in Gardiner.

In 1882 he established the Gardiner Weekly, which, in 1901, he sold. In 1887 he
established the Highland Post, a weekly paper, conducted by his sister, Carrie W.

BIOGRAPHICAL.

679

Sears, for upwards of nineteen years, to whom he had sold a half interest. He
sold the Highland Post plant, December 3, 1906, and will devote his entire time to
the legal profession, with his sister as assistant.

Mr. Sears is a Republican in politics. In 1880 he served as Supervisor, and has
served three terms as Justice of the Peace, and two terms as Justice of Sessions.
He is a member of the following social organizations: Adonia Lodge No. 718,

F. & A. M., of Highland; U. S. Grant Lodge No. 529, I. O. O. F., of Gardiner;
Gardiner Lodge No. 184, K. of P.; Pratt Post No. 127, G. A. R., of Kingston;
Gardiner Grange No. 965, P. of H., and has taken all degrees. County, State and
National; Highland Lodge No. i. Social Order of Loyal Americans, of which he
is Past General of the Supreme Lodge.

He was married to Margaret A. Collins, of New Orleans, La., a native of Louis-
ville, Ky., July 20, 1865, and they have two sons and three daughters, as follows:
Edward J., an electrical engineer of New York City; William H., with the W. S,
R. R. Co. at Haverstraw, N. Y. ; Edith, living at home; Estelle, married Wilbert
D. Woolsey, and resides in Newburgh, N. Y., and Ida, who is living at home.

Mr. Sears practices in both State and United States Courts, having been ad-
mitted to the Bar of the latter, March 3, 1902.

His father. Dr. Samuel J. Sears, practiced as a physician for over fifty years in
Ulster County. He was a native of Orange County, and died in the town of
Gardiner in 1893.

REV. FRANK BARROWS SEELEY, pastor of the Fair Street Reformed
Church of Kingston, was born at Richfield Springs, N. Y., in 1872. His boyhood
days were spent at Delhi, Delaware County, where he attended the public schools
and Delaware Academy. In 1893 Mr. Seeley graduated from Middlebury College,
Vermont, with the degree of A. B., and then entered upon a three-years’ theological
course at Union Seminary, New York, graduating in 1896, and shortly after was
ordained by the Presbyterian Church of New York.

Mr Seeley’s first charge was at Margaretville, N. Y., where he remained one
year, and in 1898, in view of wider opportunities for usefulness, accepted his present
pastorate in Kingston. Since coming to this church he has clearly demonstrated,
in the performance of his various and arduous duties, that he possesses strong and
attractive qualities, both as a preacher and a man. His sermons show careful and
conscientious preparation, and his wide reading and acquaintance with mundane as
well as sacred literature is apparent in his discourses. He has endeared himself to
the flock who know and honor him, and many fruitful years of sowing and reaping
are in store for him before the full measure of his usefulness shall have been
attained.

In 1896 Mr. Seeley was united in marriage to Miss Virginia Sinclair, only daugh-
ter of Hewitt and Caroline (Sinclair) Boice, of Kingston.

Rev. Frank W. Seeley, father of our subject, is a resident of Delhi, N. Y., where
he has filled his pastorate of the Presbyterian Church some twenty-four years.

68o

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

COLONEL C. B. SHAFER.— Phillip Shafer, Sr., and his wife Catherine, grand-
parents of the subject of this sketch, came from Holland about the year 1784, and
settled in Delaware County, N. Y., near the east branch of the Delaware River, on
a farm of 300 acres, where they raised a family of six sons and two daughters.
Mrs. Shafer died in 1837, and her husband a year later, each in their seventy-sixth
year. Their son, Phillip Shafer, Jr., a Mexican War veteran and father of Colonel
C. B., was born in 1794. He married Melvina, daughter of Ezrah Benedict, of
Andes Village, and was engaged in stock raising, dairying and the lumber business.
Their family consisted of nine children. Colonel Shafer was born in 1827 and
obtained his education at the public schools, and Andes Academy. In 1849 he
embarked in a general hardware business and engaged in the manufacture of tin-
ware at Andes, which he continued until 1855, when he disposed of his business and
property there, and removed to Eddyville, Ulster County, taking charge of the
cement plant of Thomas W. Cornell & Co. In 1871 he purchased a half interest
in this business, and with Henry C. Connelly established the firm of Connelly &
Shafer, manufacturing Rosendale cement and conducting a general store. This
partnership still exists, although the cement interest was sold to the Consolidated
Cement Company in 1899. Mr. Shafer served as Commissioner and Secretary of
the Board of the U. & D. R. R., until the bonded debt was paid. He was also
Adjutant of the Twenty-seventh Regiment in Delaware County for about eight
years.

September, 1853, he was united in marriage to Jane Frances, daughter of Thomas
W. and Emeline Cornell, of Eddyville, N. Y. They had five children, two of whom
are living, William Cornell, married to Minnie Whitney in 1898, and Mary, who
married Leonides Dennis, a lawyer of New York City, in 1890.

JAMES SHANLEY, proprietor of the Napanoch Hotel, is a brother of the well-
known firm of caterers in New York, whose establishments are of great excellence
and of national reputation, and which are known as “Shanley’s.” James
Shanley, who has been spending considerable time in Wawarsing during the past
few years, purchased his present hotel property in October, 1906, and is personally
conducting it. He is a native of Ireland, and came to this country eighteen years
ago, when but a boy, and became associated with his brothers in New York. He
remained with them for fifteen years, and during this time became thoroughly pro-
ficient in catering to the wants of the public. His hotel will accommodate fifty
guests easily and is equipped with modern conveniences. Mr. Shanley is an agree-
able and genial “Mine Host,” and will undoubtedly do a thriving business there.

PROF. JOHN E. SHULL, principal of the Ulster Academy, Rondout, New
York, was born at Martin’s Creek, near Easton, Northampton County, Pa., in 1846.
He obtained his education at the public schools there, and graduated from La-
Fayette College with the degree of B.A. in 1872. He then taught school for several
years at Belvidere, N. J., Bordentown Female College, Pottsville and Stroudsburg
(Pa.) High Schools, and in 1890 accepted the position of Superintendent of Schools

BIOGRAPHICAL.

68i

at Hoosic Falls, New York, where he remained six years. He was then Superin-
tendent of the Long Isand City Schools for four years, and in 1898 came to Kings-
ton as Principal of Ulster Academy.

Prof. Shull is identified with the Masonic Order, a member of Cypress Temple
of the Mystic Shrine, and is affiliated with the Rondout Presbyterian ChurA. He
was united in marriage to Miss Millie R. Huber of Pennsylvania, and they have
one son, Huber. Prof. Shull died March 20, 1907.

GEORGE SIEMON was born in the town of Olive, January 28, 1858, and ob-
tained his education at the District Schools. In 1884 he became a resident of West
Shokan and engaged in the blacksmith’s trade and manufacturer of wagons, which
he continues at the present time. Mr. Siemon is a member of the Knights of
Pythias and in politics a Republican. He was united in marriage February 24, 1887,
to Orpha Boice, who died January 24, 1888. He was again married July 6, 1901,
to Mabel Mead of Woodstock.

John Siemon, father of our subject, was born in Germany in 1820. He married
Catharine Schmidt in 1850, and four years later came to America, locating at
Samsonville, Ulster County.

AUGUSTUS J. SIMPSON, Merchant and Postmaster of Phoenicia, was born
August 27, 1857, in the old homestead at Phoenicia. He attended the public schools
and the Kingston Academy. When old enough to start out for himself he learned
telegraphy; was operator at Big Indian for one year and for three years was
operator and Station Agent at Phoenicia. He then turned his attention to the
mercantile business, opening a store in Phoenicia, which he has carried on ever
since, it being the largest establishment in the place. In addition to this, he is
extensively engaged in the bluestone business and identified with the Phoenicia
Water Works Company, of which he is Secretary and Superintendent. He was
appointed Postmaster of Phoenicia, August 8, 1897.

Mr. Simpson was married, February 20, 1884, to Emma L. Osborne, of Greene
County. Mr. Simpson takes much interest in public affairs. He has served two
terms as. Supervisor, 1884-85, and was at one time his party’s candidate for the
State Assembly. He is a member of several fraternities, belonging to Kingston
Lodge No. 10, F. & A. M., and Phoenicia Lodge No. 154, I. O. O. F.

F. F. SIMPSON, Postmaster of Highland, N. Y., was born in Lloyd, August 7,
1869. He attended the local schools and afterward accepted a position as clerk in a
store. In this capacity he remained two years, and then learned telegraphy. He
was appointed telegraph operator in Highland and faithfully performed his duties
there for five years. In 1897 President McKinley appointed him Postmaster of the
Village of Highland, and he is now serving his third term in that office, to the entire
satisfaction of the public. Mr. Simpson is a member of the Masonic fraternity,
Chapter at Kingston, and Commandery at Rondout; the K. of P., Loyal Americans
and a local fireman.

682

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

JAY H. SIMPSON was born in Phoenicia, New York, in i86i, and obtained his
education at the public schools and Stamford Academy. He then entered the employ
of the Kaaterskill Railroad Company, with whom he remained eleven years. The
saw-mill business which he now conducts was established by him in 1899.

Mr. Simpson has served eight years as Commissioner of the town of Shandaken.
He built the State road from Pine Hill to Phoenicia, which is conceded to be one
of the finest roads in the State of New York. Socially, Mr. Simpson is connected
with the B. P. O. E. and is trustee of the Methodist Church. He was united in
marriage to Miss Clara Selle of Pennsylvania, and they have six children, James A.,
Carroll, Katherine, Minnie B., Annie and Augustus J.

NATHAN ANDERSON SIMS, General Freight and Passenger Agent of the
Ulster & Delaware Railroad, was born in Kingston in 1856. He entered the employ
of the Ulster & Delaware in 1876 in a clerical capacity, and in less than ten years
worked his way up to his present responsible position, which he has maintained
since 1885. Mr. Sims is a member of the Masonic Order and in politics a Re-
publican.

RICHARD E. SLEIGHT, who with his brother, Benjamin H. conducts a general
grocery and provision store under the firm name of J. Sleight’s Sons in Sleight-
burgh, at the mouth of the Rondout Creek; has succeeded to a business that was
established in 1868, by their uncle and father, George S. and Johannis Sleight.

The chain ferry between Rondout and Sleightburgh was established by John P.
Sleight, great-grandfather of Richard and Benjamin. It passed into the hands of
his sons, Abraham and Isaac, and thence to the next generation. Abraham Sleight
married Hester E. Elting and eight children were born to them; Josephine B.
Richard, George S., Johannis (father of our subject), Isaac C., Bevere H., Lizzie
E. and Helena. The father of this family died in 1875, aged sixty-five years. His
sons, Johannis and George S., were prominently identified with business and public
affairs in this section of the county. Johannis married Mary Louise Horton, and
the dates of the birth of their children are as follows: Richard E., February 27,
1875; Benjamin H., December 17, 1877, and Mary Louisa, April 23, 1879. Both sons
are members of Hope Lodge No. 65, Knights of Pythias, and are numbered among
the progressive and enterprising merchants of the community.

HON. ALBERT K. SMILEY, proprietor of the far-famed “Lake-Mohonk,” was
born in Vassalboro, Maine, March 17, 1828.

He received his education at the Academy of his native town, the Friends’
Boarding School, Providence, R. I., and Haverford College, where he was gradu-
ated with the degree of A. B. in 1849. From 1850 to ’53, he was Professor of
English and Science in Haverford, but severed his connection with that institution
to establish an English and Classical Academy (in conjunction with his twin
brother, Alfred H. Smiley), in Philadelphia. He remained there four years, at the
end of which time he married Eliza P. Cornell, of New York, and then made his

BIOGRAPHICAL.

683

home for a year in Oskaloosa, Iowa. In 1858 he returned to his native town to
accept the principalship of “Oak Grove Seminary,” a large boarding school situ-
ated near his birthplace, remaining there until i860, when he was called to Provi-
dence, R. I., as Principal and Superintendent of the well-known Friends’ School in
that city, and there he remained nineteen years, building up a large school and
adding greatly to its equipment.

Ten years before leaving Providence, in the Autumn of 1869, Mr. Smiley’s twin
brother, Alfred H., who had for eight years been with him as Associate Principal
in the Providence School, and afterward settled in Poughkeepsie, visited Lake
Mohonk and was so impressed with the beauty and grandeur of the scenery, that
he wrote an urgent letter to his brother to come and see it. Mr. Smiley came, and
after a single day’s inspection, purchased the lake with three hundred acres of land,
spent all his limited fortune, ran in debt $14,000, and entered upon a business in
which he had no experience, and for which he had a great distaste, all to secure as
a home, a bit of scenery of almost unsurpassed picturesque beauty.

The lake and mountain are old in history, and for over two hundred years the
settlers along the Rondout and Wallkill Valleys had fished in the placid waters of
the lake, or viewed the magnificent landscape from the lofty point on the mountain,
called in the vernacular of their Indian predecessors “Moggunk” (Mohonk), whtch
means “On the great sky top,” by which name it is known to this day.

At the time of the purchase, Mr. John F. Stokes, the owner, had a small tavern
with ten lodging rooms, a dance hall and a saloon, used mainly for the entertain-
ment of picnic parties. Mr. Smiley at once remodeled and enlarged it, and in 1870
opened the hotel as a “Temperance House,” with a capacity of forty guests. In
those days such a thing as a successful “temperance hotel” was sneered at, and
speedy failure was predicted, yet the success of this resort has been phenomenal.
Year by year, the demand for accommodations has increased, and extensive addi-
tions to tne building and area were made until “Mohonk” of 1906 is universally
admitted to be the foremost summer hotel resort in America, whose wonderful
beauty must be seen to be realized.

By frequent and extensive purchases the property now covers an area of some
4,000 acres, lying in the towns of Marbletown, New Paltz, Rochester, Gardiner and
Rosendale. Over this region Mr. Smiley has built nearly fifty miles of drives, of
almost endless variety, wisely planned and perfectly safe, involving most difficult
and costly labor; they are constructed boldly along the precipices and rise by
easy grades to the highest points of the mountains. From the road that leads to
Sky Top, one may view the entire range of the Catskills, the whole Valley of the
Rondout, the Wallkill Valley from its beginning in Pennsylvania to its union with
the historic Hudson, and looking beyond, see the mountains of Connecticut, Massa-
chusetts and Vermont. The extensive and beautiful buildings accommodate 475
guests, and every year since its establishment, during the hot months, the hotel has
been taxed to its utmost capacity. From surrounding villages and cities, picnic
parties frequently from three to four hundred in number, go almost daily to spend
a few delightful hours among the beauties of nature and art combined, which arc

684

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

found at Mohonk. For the free use of these parties a beautiful and commodious
building, called “Picnic Lodge,” was erected several years ago, and contributes
greatly to their comfort. Another picnic lodge, lOo x loo feet, is now under con-
struction. The grounds are free and open to all, except on Sunday, when they are
closed.

The house, a picturesque structure, with additions built from time to time, now
has a frontage of seven hundred feet. Most of the lodging rooms have private
balconies, and there are broad public piazzas extending some 400 feet in length. A
library of 2,000 volumes, and reading room with the leading periodicals, in English,
French and German, is provided for guests.

Contrary to the usually accepted opinion concerning educators, Mr. Smiley in
the management and development of this property, has proven himself not less
successful than he had been as an educator. Nevertheless, despite his success in
his new line of work, he has not failed to exert a continuous and important influ-
ence in educational affairs. For more than a quarter of a century he has been
trustee of Brown University, from which institution he received the degree of A.M.,
an honor which has also been conferred by his own college, and from which he
also received the degree of LL.D. in 1906. In 1886 Mr. Smiley was appointed one
of the original Board of Trustees of Bryn Mawr College. He has also for a number
of years been Trustee of Pomona College at Claremont, Cal.

He is President of the present Board of Trustees of New Paltz Normal School,
and was President of the original Board ; largely to his experience is due the
shaping of the courses of study therein pursued.

Mr. Smiley has a national reputation as a friend of the Indian and Negro, and as
one of the foremost champions of international peace. In 1879 President Hayes
appointed him a member of the Board of Indian Commissioners, the sequence of
which is the annual session of the Lake Mohonk Indian Conference (details of
which appear elsewhere in this history). The result of these gatherings have been
revolutionizing, and practically all the reforms in the treatment of the Indians
have originated on this mountain top in Ulster County. In 1889 Mr. Smiley was
appointed by the Secretary of the Interior as Chairman of the Commission, to select
reservations for the Mission of Indians of Southern California. He has been se-
lected repeatedly by the United States Government to investigate important matters
pertaining to the welfare of the Indian, and has spent much time inspecting the
Indian Bureau at Washington, and visiting officially the Indian Schools at Carlisle,
Hampton, Lawrence, etc., and the various agencies in California, Arizona, New
Mexico and Dakota.

He was Vice-President of the American delegation at the International Peace
Conference held at Boston, Mass., in 1903.

Mr. Smiley has frequently invited to Mohonk philanthropists, statesmen and
prominent citizens to discuss and form plans for the benefit of the negro race and
for the settlement by arbitration of international difficulties, at which much good
has been accomplished. He was vice-president of the American delegation at the
International Peace Conference, held at Boston, Mass., in 1903.

BIOGRAPHICAL.

685

JOHN JEWELL SMITH, who for many years previous to his death in 1901,
spent his summers at West Park, Ulster County, was born in Elizabeth, N. J., in
1834. For many years he was connected with the Central Railroad of New Jersey.
In 1859 he engaged in the manufacture and erection of low-pressure steam-heating
apparatus for domestic use, which met with merited success.

Mr. Smith was one of the founders of Grace Episcopal Church, and served’ as
senior warden and treasurer of St. Timothy's Church, in New York, as well as
Superintendent of the Sunday School, for many years. He was very active in
beautifying West Park and making it one of the choicest residential sections of
Ulster County.

WILLIAM F. M. SMITH, Druggist of Pine Hill, N. Y., was born in that village,
September 14, 1849, and there passed the early part of his life. In 1866 he spent
some time in Greenfield, Wawarsing township, and in 1874 opened a general store
at Galesville Mills, which he carried on for four years. In 1878 Mr. Smith returned
to Pine Hill and engaged in the general merchandise business, erecting his own
store building. He also built the “Orchard Park House.” In 1882 he sold his
store to T. B. Floyd, afterward building the store now occupied by his brother,
Elbert O. He then established a drug business, which he carried on until 1891, and
sold out to E. B. Walker, who in turn in 1894, sold to Elbert O. Smith. Our
subject also for a time conducted a livery business.

He has been twice married ; his first wife was Mary C. Palmer, of Wallkill, N. Y.
He was again married in 1904 to Emma M. Wolcott.

Mr. Smith is a member of Margaretville Lodge No. 389, Mount Horeb Chapter
No. 75, and Rondout Commandery No. 52.

The great-grandfather of William F. M. Smith was Henry Smith, who was born
in 1748, on Long Island. He married Ruth Moray, and had four children, Henry,
Benjamin, James and Moray (grandfather of our subject), who married Mary
Odell. Henry Smith was a son of James Smith, one of the signers of the Declara-
tion of Independence. The Smith family is of Scotch-Irish origin.

DR. WRIGHT J. SMITH, who is widely known throughout this section of the
State as a veterinary surgeon, was born in Sullivan County in 1867. At the age of
seven he removed with his mother to Ellenville, where he remained seven years
attending the schools of that place. From 1882 to 1893 he made his home in New
York, with the exception of a term spent at the North Dakota University. He
then spent five years in the office of Prof. Hamill of New York. This was supple-
mented by a course at the New York Veterinary College and the American Veter-
inary College, from which institution he graduated with the degree of D. V. S. Dr.
Smith began practicing in Kingston in 1893, and in 1902 established his Veterinary
Hospital. He enjoys a large and lucrative practice.

in 1891 he was united in marriage to Miss Theresa Knapp, of Kerhonkson.
Wright Smith, father of our subject, was a resident of Sullivan County many years

686

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

and was engaged in the hardware business. Following the discovery of oil in
Pennsylvania he went to Titusville, where he died suddenly in 1867.

HON. ROBERT A. SNYDER, President of the First National Bank of Sauger-
ties, began life as a cabin boy on a barge and worked as a deck hand and fireman.
By the closest economy he saved sufficient money to purchase an interest in a coal
barge, of which he soon became sole proprietor. Later he bought a canal boat
and ran it upon the Erie Canal for three years; a ferryboat was his next venture
(The Air-Line) which he still owns. From this beginning, as oportunities pre-
sented themselves, he invested in different enterprises, always with his own
safe and conservative hand at the helm, which he found was the sure way. He
has also striven to develop enterprises which would aid his fellow-townspeople,
and has thus become a stockholder in many of Saugerties’s leading industrial enter-
prises. He is president of the Saugerties Manufacturing Company, the Saugerties
Steamboat Company, and vice-president of the Saugerties Printing and Publishing
Company.

He was elected to the Legislature in 1874, and served six terms. Was financial
clerk of the Assembly in 1884, and Postmaster of the Assembly in 1879. He was
elected Sheriff of Ulster County in 1879, and has served his town and county well
in other public positions, such as Supervisor, etc. Mr. Snyder was married in
1853 to Jane S., a daughter of William and Sarah Morgan, of Wales, and to
them have been born four children, three of whom are yet living, John A., who
is teller in the First National Bank of Saugerties; Florence M., a teacher of
French and German in the Ulster Academy, and Sarah E. '^r. Snyder lost one
child (a boy eight years of age) by drowning in Esopus Creek. Perhaps one of
the greatest sources of pleasure to Mr. Snyder is the interest he has taken in the
Saugerties Fire Department. The village has recognized the fact and named
its crack fire company, “The R. A. Snyder Hose Company,” in his honor.

THOMAS SNYDER, Postmaster of High Falls, Ulster County, was born in
Cottekill, town of Rosendale, October 18, 1850. He attended the District Schools
and also took up the study of civil engineering. When nineteen years of age he
engaged as teacher in a school at Fort Orange, N. Y., where he remained one
year. In 1873 he came to High Falls, as telegraph operator for the Delaware and
Hudson Canal Company and occupied that position eight years. In 1880 he
purchased the stock of general merchandise of John Brodhead, at High Falls, and
has since very successfully conducted a mercantile business.

On November 29, 1877, he married Mary Van Wagenen, of High Falls, and
four children were born to them, Harriet M., Amelia B., Anna M. and John B.
Mrs. Snyder died March 29, 1893. Mr. Snyder was appointed Postmaster by
President Harrison, and has since retained that office. He was Supervisor of the
town of Marbletown from 1896 to 1899. Socially he is a member of Kingston
Lodge No. 10, F. & A. M. ; Mount Horeb Chapter No. 75, R. A. M. ; Rondout
Commandery No. 52, K. T., and Cyprus Temple, A. M. S., of Albany.

BIOGRAPHICAL.

687

WILLIAM B. SNYDER, Postmaster of Rosendale, was born in that village,
March 12, 1866. He is engaged in the manufacture of Rosendale hydraulic cement,
with works near Rosendale, in which he furnishes employment to from 25 to 30
hands. He is also engaged with his brjother, Silas L. Snyder, in the mercantile
business in Rosendale.

Mr. Snyder is a staunch Republican ; has served upon important committees and is
a very energetic and progressive young business man.

HENRY C. SOOP was born in Albany, New York, April 17, 1842, and came
from old Holland-Dutch stock. His grandfather, Coenrad Soop, migrated from
Holland early in the eighteenth century, and served in the Revolutionary War.
Jacob Soop, father of our subject, was a soldier in the War of 1812.

Henry C. studied law in the (office of Judge M. B. Mattice at Durham, New
York, graduated from the Albany Law School in 1863, and practiced law at Rox-
bury, Delaware County, New York. In 1890 he moved to Kingston, and in January
of the same year was elected President of the First National Bank of Rondout;
was also appointed sole attorney for the estate of Thomas Cornell and Secretary
and Counsel of the U. & D. R. R, Co. He is acting attorney for Horace G. Young,
President of the Albany Trust Company, which is Trustee of the Cornell Estate.
He is a Trustee of the Rondout Savings Bank.

In October, 1867, Mr. Soop was united in marriage with Helen M., daughter
of E. T. Peck, of Windham, New York, and one child, Katharine, has been born
to them.

CHARLES A. SPAULDING, son of G. R. and Cornelia (Waldron) Spaulding,
was born in Albany, New York, in 1842. He has been connected with various
business enterprises, in which he has been uniformly successful. For many years
he has spent his summers at his country seat in Saugerties township, overlooking
the Hudson. Dr. Guy Spaulding, grandfather of our subject, was a celebrated
physician of Albany County in the early part of the nineteenth century.

STEPHEN STAPLES, for many years an energetic business man of Kingston,
was born in Saugerties, N. Y., in 1848, and two years later the family removed to
Kingston. He was educated in the Kingston schools and learned the trade of
carpenter which he followed seven years. He then entered the First National
Bank of Rondout, as- teller, and remained there seven years. About 1878 he began
the manufacture of crackers and for twenty years did a thriving business, em-
ploying upwards of thirty hands much of the time. During the past nine or ten
years he has conducted a wholesale cracker and biscuit establishment.

He married Cornelia H. Van Gaasbeek, of Kingston, and they have one daughter,
Mabel O.

FREDERICK STEPHAN, JR., District-Attorney of Ulster County, was born
in Kingston, May 20, 1859. He took up the study of law with Lawton & Stebbins
and later removed to Boston, Mass., where he remained four years. In 1886 he

688

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

was graduated from the law department of Albany University and immediately
opened a law office in Rondout and acquired a good practice. He was elected City
Judge of Kingston in 1896 and served six years. In 1904 he was nominated and
elected on the Republican ticket to the office of District-Attorney, and is aoly per-
forming the duties of that office today. He is a member of Rondout Lodge No.
343, F. & A. M., of which he is Past Master. He is also a member of the Knights
Templar, Knights of Pythias, and is now one of the Governors of the Rondout
Club.

In February, 1888, he married Alice Vignes, a granddaughter of the first jeweler
to locate in Kingston. They have one daughter, Helen.

His father, Frederick Stephan, Sr., was a native of Alsace, France, where he
learned.'the trade of baker and miller. In 1837 he sailed for America, and on
May 15 arrived in Kingston. He engaged in the baking business, and afterward
conducted a flourishing flour and feed business in Rondout. He married Mag-
dalena Von Beck, daughter of Major George F. Von Beck, on October 2, 1841,
and ten children were born to them.

Mr. Stephan, Sr., was always a prominent figure in the Republican party. In
1865 he was elected a member of the State Legislature, serving one term, and de-
clined a second nomination. He served three years as Trustee of the Village of
Rondout. When Ulster Academy was first projected he was one of its most
earnest advocates and was one of the first trustees, serving eighteen years. Mr.
Stephan, Sr., died September 21, 1898. His wife died April 22, 1895.

DANIEL B. STOW, who has been engaged in a general insurance business in
Rondout for over forty years, was born in Claverack, Columbia County, New
York, April ii, 1827, where he attended the public schools and Academy. He then
learned the trade of harness-making with his uncle, and in 1847 came to Rondout
entering the employ of Gordon C. Abbey. In 1849, during the cholera epidemic,
Mr. Stow, with three comrades, performed heroic work in burying the dead and
ministering to the needs of the afflicted. After the plague subsided he again re-
sumed the harness-making and leather business under the firm name of Stow &
Abbey, which was continued until 1864.

Mr. Stow has served two terms as Assessor. Socially he is identified with the
Masonic Order. August 19, 1849, he married Emily B. Delaney and they have
two daughters and one son, C. B. Stow, a prominent florist in Kingston. Mr. Stow
died March 4, 1907.

CHARLES M. STREETER, son of John H. and Martha Streeter, was born
in Mattewan, Dutchess County, New York, in 1847. He moved with his parents
to East Kingston, New York, in 1856, and obtained his education in the public
schools. In the course of time he became foreman of various brick yards at that
place, until 1887, when he engaged in the manufacture of brick under the firm
name of Streeter & Manchester. At the end of three years he sold his interest
to Mr. Manchester, and built another yard further up the Hudson, establishing the
firm of Streeter & Hendricks. This partnership continued ten years, or until 1900,
when Mr. Streeter retired from the brick business and purchased a fruit farm of

BIOGRAPHICAL. 689

ninety acres, near Ulster Park, where he now resides. In 1887 he was elected
Supervisor of the town of Ulster, but has since declined public office.

In 1890 Mr. Streeter was united in marriage to Miss Mary A. Montgomery.
They have an adopted daughter. Miss Marie.

DANIEL SULLY, the celebrated comedian, whose home is in Woodstock,
Ulster County, N. Y., was born at Newport, R. I., November 6, 1855. The early
years of his life were passed in that city, where he also received his education.
He entered the show business when a boy by running away from home and joining
a circus. He became a skilled acrobat and dancer and has since retained his
proficiency in these arts. He later took to the vaudeville stage and played farces
and one-act comedies for several years. In 1884, at Boston, Mr. Sully produced
“The Corner Grocery,” which was played by him for several seasons, with unvary-
ing success. He also produced “Daddy Nolan,” “Capital Prize,” “Conroy the
Tailor,” “The Congressman,” “The Millionaire,” “Auld Lang Syne,” “O’Neil,
Washington, D. C,” “A Social Lion” and “A Bachelor’s Wives.” Of his later
productions, “The Parish Priest,” was the most successful. The season of 1906-7,
will see him in “The Match-Maker,” where as in the former play, he takes the
part of a priest, and it is of interest to note that he is the first and only aqtor
to take that part on the American stage.

In 1886 Mr. Sully was married in New York City to Miss Louise Fox, a daughter
of the late C. K. Fox (“The Great Pantaloon”). She is also a niece of G. L.
Fox, the renowned “Humpty Dumpty.” Mrs. Sully is an actress of ability and
her stage career was a successful one. She is now living in retirement on the
farm.

Several years ago Mr. Sully purchased a farm in Woodstock, where he has
since resided between seasons. His real estate holdings in Woodstock have been
increased by farm purchases from time to time, and he is now one of the largest
property owners in the town.

J. HARTLEY TANNER. — The subject of this sketch is a well-known school
principal of Ulster County. He was born in the town of Rochester, October 27,
1869. After receiving an elementary education he entered the New Paltz Normal
School, from which he graduated June 25, 1889. After teaching one year he
returned, and graduated from the advanced course, June 23, 1891. Since that time,
with the exception of one year, he has followed his chosen profession in this
county. For five years he was principal of the Union Free School at Napanoch,
N. Y., and for the past seven years has occupied his present position, as principal
of the Eddyville Public School, Fly Mountain, N. Y.

Mr. Tanner takes an active interest in educational affairs. In May, 1904, he
was elected president of the Ulster County Teachers’ Association.

November 25, 1896, he was married to L. Etta Rider, and they have one son,
Hartley Rider Tanner, born May 4^ 1899.

Mr. Tanner traces his ancestry to some of the first residents of the county. Tra-
dition tells of three brothers, John, James and William Tanner, who came to

690

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

America with their father, John, but the father returned. Records (Am. Ancestry)
show that William Tanner and his wife, Rachel De Long, came from England,
settled in Pennsylvania and subsequently at the Clove, Dutchess County, where
their son, Samuel, was born April 4, 1753. (Other ch. see Fenon’s Wills.) William
served in the American Revolution, Fifth Regiment, Dutchess County. Reuben,
another son, was the founder of this branch of the family. Reuben, born January
4, 1765, died January 6, 1843; married April 17, 1788, to Mary Tompkins, born Feb-
ruary 5, 1772, died January 19, 1855; lived at Lagrange, Dutchess County. Their
third child was Amos, born October 6, 1792; married Catherine Rynders, born Octo-
ber 14, 1795 (father, Andrew Ryness, 2nd Reg., Dutchess Co. in Rev.) They
moved to Clinton, Dutchess County, and then to Ulster. Their children were
Reuben, Mary Eliza, Permelia, Julia C., Andrew R., Mary Elizabeth, Jane Ann,
Amelia Caroline, Amos, Melissa F. and Isaiah R. Amos, born September 27, 1837,
married Mary E. Markle, born October 22, 1842; one son, our subject.

Mr. Tanner has a very complete family record of his maternal ancestry to the
first one in America. Frederick Markle and wife, Barbara Alman, three daughters
and two sons, came with the colony of Palatines from Germany, May 10, 1710.
(Doc. Hist. N. Y.) son Mathias married Margaret Keel, son Frederick baptized
June 30, 1734 (Rev. 3rd Ulster), married Leah Smith; son Frederick baptized June
24, 1760 (Rev. 3rd Ulster), married Martha Middagh; son Jacob F. born July 25,
1787, married Lydia Kelder; son Joseph, Jr., born January 22, 1811, married Char-
lotte Middagh; daughter, Mary Esther (mother of subject). Joris Middagh, born
Hycoop, Holland, settled in Marbletown in 1695, married Martens Hystellyn; son,
Joris, baptized Mayi3, 1711, married Janntje DelaMater; son Gloudy, born (1745?),
(Rev. 3rd Ulster), married Maria Krom; son Henry, born May ii, 1772, married
Maria LeRoy; daughter Charlotte, born March 23, 1810, married Joseph Markle,
Jr.; daughter, Mary Esther (mother of subject). (American Ancestry.)

CHARLES C. TEN BROECK was born in Delaware County, New York, in
1846, and obtained his education at the public schools and Academy there. He
came to Kingston in 1862 and entered the- employ of the drug firm of Eltinge &
Osterhoudt, and successor, C. J. Masten, with whom he remained four years;
when his services were obtained by Dr. J. W. DuBois & Brother for three years.
In 1869 he associated himself with VanDeusen Bros.’ Drug Store, where he re-
mained twenty years, when he embarked in the drug business for himself.

Mr. Ten Broeck has served as a member of the Board of Education for fifteen
years ; was vice-president and for two years president of the Kingston Drug Club ;
a director of the Kingston National Bank about ten years; a member of the New
York State Pharmaceutical Association; an honorary mem.ber of the Twentieth
N. Y. S. Militia; a member of the Masonic Veterans’ Association of Newburgh,
N. Y. ; a member of the Merchants’ Association of New York; is Past Master of
Kingston Lodge No. 10, F. & A. M., and vice-president of the Holland Society for
Ulster County. As deacon and elder he has been for many years prominently
identified with the Fair Street Reformed Church.

He was married to Martha Godkins of Kingston, and one son, Freddie, died in

BIOGRAPHICAL.

691

infancy. The father of our subject, William A. Ten Broeck, was among the promi-
nent attorneys of Delaware County, where he was born in 1820. He was for many
years Justice of the Peace and Justice of Sessions in that county, and also served
as Railroad Commissioner. His death occurred in 1903.

E. N. TERWILLIGER of Ellenville, N. Y., was born in that village, October 4,
1857. He attended the public school and the Ellenville Academy. Entering the
office of Division Superintendent of the D. & H. Canal, shortly after leaving school,
he remained there for ten years, then entered the insurance office, conducted by his
brother, Mr. U. E. Terwilliger, of which he is now manager and partner, becoming a
partner in 1896. This agency is among the very oldest insurance and real estate
offices in Ulster County, and has been conducted by the Terwilliger family for over
fifty years.

Mr. Terwilliger is connected with the F. & A. M. and other organizations, and
is conducting a most important business successfully and creditably.

H. C. TERWILLIGER of Wawarsing, N. Y., was born in Ellenville, December
28, 1851. He attended the Ellenville schools, learned carpentering and also clerked
for DuBois Brothers in Ellenville eight years. He then conducted a hardware busi-
ness in Ellenville for five years. In 1881 he established a general store in Wawars-
ing which he has since most successfully conducted. He has been successively
appointed Postmaster there for the past twenty-five years, and has also served as
Collector of the town. He is influential and prominent in the county. Mr. Ter-
williger married Miss Frances Castle of Wawarsing. ,

URIAH E. TERWILLIGER, one of the best known men of southern Ulster,
was born in Ellenville, December 10, 1849. His education was begun in the public
schools of his native town and continued at the private academy of S. A. Law Post,
who had selected Ellenville for the location of his school, which was then an insti-
tution of considerable prominence. Later Mr. Terwilliger attended Waring’s Mili-
tary Institute at Poughkeepsie and the Hudson River Institute at Claverack, N. Y.
At a comparatively early age, however, he was compelled, because of failing health,
to abandon extended study, and, returning to Ellenville, he established a real
estate and insurance agency. With characteristic enthusiasm Mr. Terwilliger
quickly developed the business and eventually built up one of the largest general
insurance agencies in the State. Several partners were admitted from time to
time, the firm style for a number of years being Neafie, Terwilliger & Post. For
some fifteen years past Mr. Terwilliger’s brother has been the only associate in the
firm, now familiarly known as U. E. & E. IN. Terwilliger. In connection with
this particular business Mr. Terwilliger has been conspicuously entrusted with
many and varied fiduciary interests as the executor of estates and as the repre-
sentative of various financial institutions throughout the county and elsewhere,
until he is now widely known for his business sagacity and unswerving honesty.

Always deeply interested in local affairs, Mr. Terwilliger has given generously of
time and means to matters of common weal. As president of the Board of Edu-

692

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

cation he was largely instrumental in the establishing of a high school and
placing it under the jurisdiction of the Regents. A local Y. M. C. A. and Board of
Trade owe their beginning to his enthusiasm, and for many years he has been
an active member and loyal supporter of the Reformed Church with which he has
long been officially connected.

In politics Mr. Terwilliger has always been a Republican, but though offered
the nomination for State Senator, has declined political honors.

But it is perhaps in the development of his estate at Mt. Meenahga, now famous
as a summer resort, that Mr. Terwilliger has become most widely known. After
some years of close application to business, necessity for rest manifested itself, and
in 1877 Mr. Terwilliger and a party of friends formed a camp on the westerly
side of the Shawangunks, two miles from Ellenville. Impressed with the natural
advantages and beauty of the location, he made a lease of the property the following
year, and three years later bought a tract of a hundred acres. With a view to
making a permanent summer home a comfortable cottage and barns were erected,
and from time to time other cottages were built for the accommodation of friends
who sought more comfortable quarters than the simple camp life had afforded.
Additional acres were bought from year to year, until finally the erection of a
small boarding-house in 1881 marked the beginning of the present Mt. Meenahga as
a resort, now second only in importance to but one other in the county, Lake
Mohonk. The property now comprises upwards of six hundred acres, controlling
the bold face of the mountain for nearly three miles. On the north and south are
tracts owned by the village of Ellenville as a water preserve, numbering some five
thousand acres and assuring to Mt. Meenahga for all time the advantages of a large
forest domain. The work of development at Mt. Meenahga has been along the
lines of Nature’s plan, and rare genius has been displayed in the building of many
miles of paths and roads that lead over the beautiful hilltops or through the deep
gorges, disclosing a wealth of beauty and grandeur at every turn. The hotel
proper is thoroughly modern in its equipment and means for healthful recreation
have been generously provided. Mr. Terwilliger’s son, Bert H., has been a partner
in the business since 1902, and is now largely entrusted with the management of the
property.

COL. G. W. THOMPSON, of Saugerties, manufacturer, is a veteran of the
Civil V/ar and one who signally distinguished himself in many a hard-fought battle.
He was born in Pittsfield, Mass., February 12, 1830. Enlisted at the outbreak of
hostilities in the 34th New York Volunteers as Adjutant, served with this regiment
during the entire time for which he was enlisted, participating in numerous engage-
ments, and upon its return home immediately raised another, the 152nd New York
Volunteers, and returned to action as its Lieutenant-Colonel. He was soon pro-
moted to Colonel and fought under General McClellan in all the engagements and
battles under that renowned commander.

Among the many battles that Col. Thompson was engaged in with his regiment
we mention: Spottsylvania Court House (the Battle of the Bloody Angle), where
he was wounded in the ankle by grape shot, and the Battle of the Wilderness,

BIOGRAPHICAL.

693

during which he was reputably mentioned for exceptional bravery. At the close
of the war Colonel Thompson engaged in the manufacture of tissue paper in Mil-
burn, N. J., where he owned and operated the Diamond Mills Paper Company. He
afterwards owned paper mills in Bloomfield and New Hampton, that State.

In 1905 he established his paper mills in Sangerties (No. i and No. 2). The
Colonel makes his home in New York City.

R. F. THOMPSON, Hotel Keeper, Pine Hill, N. Y., was born in Lexington,
N. Y., November 20, 1878. His parents moved to Pine Hill when our subject was
eight years of age. His father was engaged in the livery business, in which the
son assisted, and he later established a similar business in 1901. In May, 1906, he
assumed charge of the “Avon Inn,” at Pine Hill. This hotel accommodates twenty-
five guests, and caters to the commercial trade.

Mr. Thompson is an energetic, progressive young business man and is very
popular in Pine Hill. He was married to Miss Margaret Dutcher, a daughter of
Byron Dutcher, of Oliverea, in 1889. He has no children.

JOHN A. TICE, Secretary of the Ellenville Savings Bank, is a descendant of

Tice, who came to America upon the Mayflower. The descendants of the

progenitor of this family are found in Dutchess and Sullivan Counties, from whence
our subject’s father came into Ulster, some sixty years ago.

John A. Tice was born at Ellenville, June 29, 1859. He attended the public
schools and finished his education at the Wyoming Seminary, of Pennsylvania.
After leaving school he was engaged in the jewelry business for a time and later
in the shoe business with Burr Eaton. In April, 1883, he accepted a position as
bookkeeper in the Savings Bank, where he has since continued and of which he
was elected secretary in 1906. Mr. Tice married Miss Harriet I. Hoar, and to
them has been born one son, Rodger DuBois Tice. Mr. Tice is a Mason, Knight
Templar, President of the Scoresby Hose Company for the past fifteen years, and
one of Ellenville’s most influential and trustworthy business men. He is highly
regarded by all.

F. TOBEY, JR., was born at Fairhaven, Massachusetts, November i, 1856.
His education was obtained in the schools at New Bedford, Mass. He first took
up the trade of pattern-making, which he followed for some time, and then entered
the employ of the New Bedford Gas Company, with whom he worked, in all ca-
pacities, from 1873 to 1890, when he tendered his resignation; he was at that time
foreman of the piping and fixture department. He then came to Kingston and
assumed the office of Superintendent of the Gas Department of the Kingston Gas
and Electric Company. Four years later he was made Superintendent over the
entire plant, both gas and electric, which position he now holds.

He was married to Susan F. Bunker, of New Bedford, Mass., and they have
four children — Elihu Franklin, has charge of the fitting department of the Kingston
Gas and Electric Company; James Philip, Olive Bunker, married J. H. Tremper,
Jr., and Bessie L.

694

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

GEORGE FREDERICK TOBEY, of Kingston, is a native of Fair Haven, Mass^
where he was born in 1858. After completing his education at the public schools of
New Bedford, he embarked in the plumbing business in that city with his father,
where he remained until 1898, when he came to Kingston to act as Superintendent of
the Gas Works. Mr. Tobey is a Republican in politics, and a member of the
Junior Order of United American Mechanics. He has been twice married, his first
wife being Emma B. Case, whom he wedded in 1885. Two children blessed this
union, Louisa B. and Clarence B.

In November, 1901, Mr. Tobey married Martha Timperley. His father, Franklin-
Tobey, and mother, Phoebe (Potter) Tobey, were descendants of old New England
families.

WILLIAM H. TOWNSEND, JR., was born in Milton, N. Y., April 13, 1867.
He attended a Hackensack select school and also one in Poughkeepsie. After leav-
ing school he assisted his father, who conducted a grocery business. In 1892 Mr.
Townsend established his present extensive manufacturing business, which consists
of the manufacture of all kinds of fruit packages, and is located near the depot in
Milton, on the banks of the Hudson. The product is shipped throughout the Middle
States, and employment is given to about twenty-five hands. Mr. Townsend
served one term as Postmaster of Milton under President Harrison. His family
consists of a wife and two children, Charles Powell and Gladys V.

JOSEPH S. TRACY, Secretary of the New York Car and Truck Company, is a
native of St. Louis, Mo. He located in Kingston, N. Y., in 1906, to take charge
of the above industry, the other officers of which are O. F. Thomas, president, who
resides in. New York, and Frederick Steigerwald, vice-president and treasurer, of
Lyons, N. Y.

The Kingston plant manufactures street car trucks and rotary snow ploughs for
electric service, and an area of over a quarter of a million square feet is occupied
by the concern, the dimensions of the main building being 335 by 338 feet. The
plant has been in operation since June, 1906, and at present gives employment to
seventy-five men, with prospects of employing two hundred more. Mr. Tracy has
been financial manager for many years of the O. F. Thomas enterprises, which
are scattered throughout the United States. He is a member of the Royal Arcanum
and of the New York branch of the Society of Founders and Patriots of America.

JACOB H. TREMPER. — Success in life is rarely attained by a mere fortunate
combination of favoring circumstances. It usually comes as the sequence of earnest,
persistent labor, under the guidance of good management. Captain Tremper, who
retired from an active business career about seven years ago, gained his success
in this legitimate manner.

He was born in Kingston, N. Y., of an excellent and sturdy parentage, June 17,
1849, and his whole life has been spent in that historic town. He attended the
public schools and the Kingston Academy, and afterward spent a year at the Col-
legiate Institute of Andes, Delaware County, and another at the Hudson River

BIOGRAPHICAL.

695

Institute at Claverack, N. Y, On leaving school he began his business career at
an early age with his father, Captain Jacob H. Tremper, who was then conducting
an extensive steamboat transportation business between Kingston and New York,
and also between Newburgh and Albany. These lines, now owned by the Central-
Hudson Steamboat Company, were established by his father in 1846 ; the firm being
then known as the Romer & Tremper Steamboat Company. William F. Romer
and Jacob H. Tremper were the owners and operators. After the death of Mr.
Romer in 1884, and Captain Tremper, four years later, the subject of this sketch,
in partnership with Myron Teller, of Kingston, took charge of this extensive pas-
senger and freight traffic. Under their careful management the boats were greatly
improved and kept in the best possible condition for service, and the business in-
creased rapidly. For a time Captain Tremper took personal command of the James
W. Baldwin j the largest of the New York night-line steamers, and both the
passenger and freight traffic became very large and profitable. He was then
President of the Company. About seven years ago the business was sold to the
Central-Hudson Steamboat Company, and soon after this Captain Tremper gave
up active business life. Previous to this, however, he conducted the large summer
hotel in the Catskills at Phoenicia, known as the ‘‘Tremper House,” for a number
of years. This was among the first large summer hotels in the Ulster County
Catskills. It was built by Captain Tremper in 1878. It was for some years one of
the most popular resorts in that section of the mountains. The property was sold
to other parties some years ago, and the house is still operated as a summer hotel,
being known as the “Washington Inn.”

In 1898 Captain Tremper was elected to the New York State Assembly from
the first Ulster County District, by the Republicans. For several years
he was a director of the Ulster & Delaware Railway Company, and he
served in a like capacity in the First National Bank of Rondout and
the National Bank of Rondout. He is now serving his eighteenth year
as a trustee of the Industrial Home in Kingston. He is prominently identified
with the Masonic fraternity in Kingston, and the Mecca Temple and Scottish Rites
in New York City. He served twelve years in the State Militia, receiving the
appointment of Commissary of Subsistence under General Parker, of the Eighth
Brigade, with the rank of Captain, and later as Inspector of Rifle Practice, with
the rank of Major. After the dissolution of the Eighth Brigade he served five
years as Inspector of Rifle Practice, under General Oliver, of the Fifth Brigade.

He married Catharine Elmendorf Ostrander, of Kingston, and they have one son,
Jacob H. Tremper, Jr., who is now engaged in the insurance business on Fair
Street in this city. Captain Tremper is a leading member of the old Dutch Church
in Kingston, which he has served as Deacon and Elder in the past. He and Mrs.
Tremper have been prominent in Kingston social circles for many years.

His father, Captain Jacob H. Tremper, was also a native of Kingston, and he
rose steadily from a humble walk of life^ and became one of the most prominent
and influential citizens and business men in the county. He was widely known
as a popular river steamboat man. He was a man of strong individuality and strict
integrity of character; honest, sincere, energetic and persistent, and he left a

696

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

wholesome and indelible impress upon the community in which he lived and
labored. In his capacity as river steamboat owner and Captain he formed a vast
number of acquaintances in different parts of the country. Few men of his time
left so large a circle of friends at the close of life as did Captain Tremper. Fie
married Catharine Louisa Hardenburgh, daughter of Thomas R. Hardenburgh,
who held an original Land Patent conferred by Queen Anne.

WILLIAM J. TURCK, son of Solomon and Cornelia (Boies) Turck, was born
at Red Hook, Dutchess County, New York, December 23, 1820. He learned the
carpenter’s trade in Kingston, where he has erected many public edifices, notably
the German Catholic, the Trinity Methodist and the Church of The Holy Spirit.
In 1864 he established his lumber yard, which is now the most extensive in the
county. He also conducts a planing mill at Ponckhockie and a ship-building yard
on the Rondout Creek. His various industries give employment to upwards of
fifty men. In 1841 Mr. Turck married Miss Jane Scott, who died in 1858, leaving
one child, Marius. For his second wife he married Miss Maria Dederick, by
whom he had three children, William J., Jr., John and Ella. Mr. Turck is a
member of the M. E. Church and has been identified with the Masonic fraternity
for forty years. He is one of Ulster County’s self-made men and has contributed
largely to the development of the business interests of Rondout.

William J. Turck, Jr., was born in 1859, and since finishing his studies at the
Rondout schools, has been associated with his father in business. He is now a
partner and an officer in the stock company known as The William J. Turck Com-
pany, and is widely known as an active business man.

In 1882 he was united in marriage to Miss Mary L. Lewis, of Saugerties, and
they had three children, Harry L., who died July 25, 1903, Hazel B. and Ella M.

GEORGE VAN AKEN, a well-known citizen of the town of Esopus, was born
June 20, 1856. His boyhood days were passed on his father’s farm and in attending
the District School, and in 1898 he purchased the farm on which he now resides.
He married Selena Terpening, a daughter of Selah Terpening, a member of an old
Ulster County family.

Mr. Van Aken is one of Ulster County’s representative farmers, and is a de-
scendant of a family whose members have been prominently identified with the
history of the county since pre-revolutionary times.

His father, Liverius Van Aken, was born at Ulster Park, March 14, 1832, and
died May 27, 1897. He married Phoebe Ann Townsend, of Esopus, and had two
children, George and Edwin. The latter still resides on their father’s farm. Mr.
Van Aken traces his ancestry to Peter Van Aken, who settled in Esopus, one mile
from the mouth of the Rondout, about the middle of the seventeenth century, and
became quite an extensive land owner.

AUGUSTUS H. VAN BUREN, of Kingston, a prominent member of the bar
of Ulster County, was born at Marbletown in 1856. After completing his studies

BIOGRAPHICAL. 697

in the Kingston schools he read law in the office of Charles A. Fellows and was
admitted to the bar in 1877.

Mr. Van Buren has served two terms as Alderman and has acted as counsel
for the Board of Supervisors. From 1902 to 1906 he served as Corporation Coun-
sel. Always a sterling Democrat, Mr. Van Buren as Chairman of the County
Committee has accomplished much for his party. Since 1889 he has been asso-
ciated with ex-Senator John J. Linson in the practice of law at Kingston.

Mr. Van Buren is Master of F. and A. M. Lodge No. 10 and High Priest of
the Chapter. In 1879 was joined in marriage to Miss Catherine M. McKinstry.
Three sons and one daughter have been born to them. The Van Burens in Ulster
County are descended from Tobias and Helena (Bogardus) Van Buren, who
came to Kingston in 1720.

DEWITT VAN BUREN, of Saugerties, Attorney and Counsellor at Law, was
born at Kingston, N. Y,, August 25, 1881, in the old stone house opposite the Eagle
Hotel. He is a son of Augustus Van Buren, Esq., of Kingston, with whom he
studied law and later graduated from Cornell University, Class of 1903. Mr. Van
Buren begun the practice of his profession in March, 1904, at Pine Hill, where he
became corporation counsel, continuing there for two years, and then removed to
Saugerties and opened an office in the Seaman Block. He is identified with local
organizations and bids fair to add new lustre to this most distinguished name, in
the history of New York State.

AMOS VAN ETTEN. — The progenitor of the Van Etten family in America was
Jacob Jansen Van Etten, who came from Etten in North Brabant, a province of
Holland, to America some time prior to 1660. The exact date of his arrival is not
known, but it is a record in the Reformed Church at Kingston, N. Y., that in 1665
he was married to the widow of Aert Pietersen Tack, of Amsterdam, by whom
he had ten children, the oldest of whom was Jan, baptized, as appears from the
records, January 3, 1666. Jan married Jannetje Roosa, daughter of Arien Roosa.
One of their sons, Jacob, married Antjen Westbrook. They resided in the town of
Rochester, Ulster County, N. Y., until about 1730, when they located in Sussex
County, N. J., along the Delaware River. Johannes, one of Jacob’s sons, married
and settled in what is now Pike County, Pennsylvania. He was a Captain of the
Pennsylvania Militia during the Revolutionary War, and it is said that he served
his country with honor and distinction. His son Cornelius was born and lived upon
the farm of his father in Pike County until the time of his death in i860. One of
his sons wasAmos, Sr., the father of our subject. Amos Van Etten, Sr., was born
in 1808. He began his business career as a merchant at Milford, Pa., afterwards
located at Hainesville, Sussex County, N. J., where he resided until the year 1862,
when he engaged in business at Port Jervis, N. Y., and lived there until the time
of his death in 1889. He married Lydia C. Thrall, of Milford, Pa., and to them
were born six children.

Amos Van Etten, Jr., was born at Hainesville, N. J., August 31, 1852. Was
graduated from Rutgers College in 1874. During his college course he began the

698

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

study of law with Lewis E. Carr, then of the firm of Carr & Howell, at Port Jervis,
and in the year 1875 entered the Albany Law School, from which he was graduated
in 1876, He began the practice of law at Port Jervis, where he remained until 1892,
when he came to Kingston and continued in his profession, which then became
largely Admiralty practice. While practicing in Port Jervis he was in the year
1884 elected Special County Judge of Orange County, and held the office one term,
until 1887. He was then renominated for the office, which nomination he declined.
Mr. Van Etten is now the legal representative of the Cornell Steamboat Company
and The Ulster & Delaware Railroad Company, and is the local attorney for the
New York Central Railroad. In 1898, when the Bankruptcy Law became effective,
he was appointed Referee in Bankruptcy for Ulster County, and holds the position
at the present time. He is a member of the Holland Society of America, the
Transportation Club of New York, the Kingston Club and the Mystic Shrine of
Albany. In 1879, he married Olive Caskey, of Port Jervis, daughter of Franklin
Caskey, and their family consists of three daughters: Luella, Kate and Jennie.

JUDGE JOHN G. VAN ETTEN is a descendant of Jacob Jansen Van Etten,
who emigrated to America about 1660. The name is derived from the village of
Etten in the province of North Brabant, Holland, where Jacob Jansen was born,
and there it is supposed he passed the early years of his life until he sailed for
America. He settled in or near what is now the city of Kingston, N. Y., and was
the progenitor of the entire Van Etten family in this country. John E. Van Etten,
who represents the seventh generation, was born in what is now Woodstock town-
ship, April 2, 1830. His education was obtained at Albany, under the distinguished
author, George R. Perkins. He read law in Kingston with Erastus Cooke, late
Justice of the Supreme Court, and in 1856 was admitted to the Bar of the State;
in 1867 he was admitted to the United States Bar. Mr. Van Etten was in active
practice until shortly before his death, April 30, 1904, and was one of the ablest
and most distinguished members of the Ulster County and United States Bars,
obtaining favorable decisions in some of the most intricate and noted cases tried
in Ulster County, and for several years was in partnership with Hon. A. T. Clear-
water. In 1858 he was united in marriage to Adelaide Greene, by whom he had
two sons, John G. and Lawrence E., the latter a civil and landscape engineer of
New Rochelle, N. Y., and one daughter Jessie, now the wife of Dr. J. L. Preston,
of Kingston, N. Y.

Judge John G. Van Etten was born in Kingston, N. Y., August 7, 1863, and re-
ceived his education at the Kingston Academy and Princeton University. He took
up the study of law in his father’s office, and in 1886 was admitted to the bar. In
1890 and 1891 he served as City Engineer, and in 1896 was a delegate to the Na-
tional Democratic Convention from the Eighteenth Congressional District of New
York. In 1898 he was elected Judge of Ulster County for a term of six years.
He is a member of Kingston Lodge No. 10, F. & A. M., of which he is Past Mas-
ter, and has held all offices in the Fourteenth Separate Company (now Company
M, First Regiment), including that of Captain.

In 1888 he married Miss Anna, daughter of Mr. I. M. North, of Kingston, N. Y.

BIOGRAPHICAL.

699

GEORGE H. VAN GAASBEEK, M.D., was born at Olive, Ulster County, in
1863. His early education was obtained largely by self-instruction, until he quali-
fied for a position as school-teacher. After teaching for two years, he entered the
Albany Medical College and graduated from that institution with the degree of
M. D. in 1893. His medical education has been supplemented by frequent post-
graduate courses at the University of the State of New York.

Dr. Van Gaasbeek is a member of the County and State Medical Societies and
the American Medical Association, and is attending physician of the Benedictine
Sanatarium. He is a member of the Knights of Pythias and the J. O. U. A. M.
Politically he is a Republican.

He married Frances Johnson, a native of Ulster County, and they have one son.
His father, Nathaniel Van Gaasbeek, for many years a Captain on the Hudson, was
drowned in 1875 at the age of forty-one. His widow, Milinda Young, is still living.

JACOB VAN GELDER. — The history of the Van Gelder family in America is
traced back to Peter Van Gelder, who came from New Jersey in 1765 or 1767 to
Catskill, N. Y., where he bought a farm which remained in the possession of the
family for over a century, and a portion of which is still owned by some of his de-
scendants. Peter Van Gelder married Altie Hendricks, of Long Island, May 29,
1757, and they had three children, Abraham, Jacob and Peter. Jacob spent his
whole life on the homestead, and there passed away May 5, 1835. He married
Maria Mynderse in Saugerties and had two children, Peter, the father of our
subject, and Henry. He carried on a large farm of over two hundred acres, and
was one of the most successful and influential men in that part of the country.
He was a Federalist, and took quite a prominent part in politics. He was a member
of the Dutch Reformed Church and was active in church work.

Peter Van Gelder, father of our subject, was born May 20. 1800, in Catskill, and
was educated in the District Schools of that neighborhood, gaining a fair knowledge
of the elementary branches which he added to by excessive reading, becoming a
well-informed man. He was an old-line Whig, and was so popular with his
fellow-citizens that he could have held any office within their gift; but preferring
to attend to his private business refused many propositions looking to such an end.
However, he served for a time both as Assessor and Road Commissioner. He was
a member of the Dutch Reformed Church at Katsbaan, in which he was deacon
and elder. His marriage to Sarah Myer, who was born November 23, 1800,
daughter of William Myer of Saugerties, took place November 2, 1822, and five
children were born to them, Rebecca, who died when thirteen years old; David H.,
deceased; Jacob, our subject; William, deceased; and James H., a lawyer. This
excellent man passed to his final rest March 14, 1875, his wife dying December
22, 1874.

Jacob Van Gelder, the subject of this sketch, was born December 27, 1830, in
Catskill, and there resided until twenty-three years of age. He acquired a good
education in the District Schools. When twenty-one years old he began teacning,
continuing the school for three terms, when in 1854, he came to Saugerties and was

700

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

offered a school in that place. Since making his home in Saugerties he has devoted
himself to horticulture and farming, and has become widely known throughout this
section of the country as an authority on fruit culture. He has been since 1865
a member of the American Pomological Society, and in virtue of that fact has
been made a life member. He has thoroughly mastered the science of pomology,
and has been eminently successful in his horticultural work, having added much to
the general information of fruit growing. Much of his time has been occupied
settling up estates, and in the real estate and banking business. He is a director
in the First National Bank and was vice-president of the Savings Bank of Sauger-
ties, which office he held for years.

On June 29, 1854, Mr. Van Gelder was married to Eliza M. Van Etten, daughter
of William Van Etten, of Saugerties, and they have had six children, three of whom
died in infancy; of the others, Harriet married Capt. Albert A. Thomas on January
I, 1884, and died January 15, 1886; Anna married Capt. Albert A. Thomas on May
10, 1888; Lillie is living at home. Mr. Van Gelder is a member of the Reformed
Dutch Church at Saugerties, in which he has been deacon, and takes an active part
in church affairs. He belongs to Confidence Lodge No. 51, I. O. O. F., and has
passed all the chairs.

Christian Myer, maternal great-grandfather of our subject, was born in the
Palatinate, near the River Rhine, Germany, and when a young man went on board
ship to bid farewell to a lady friend. Miss Anna Gertrude Overbaugh, a daughter
of Dominie Overbaugh, who was about to sail for America. When he came on
deck the vessel was under full sail. The Captain refused to turn about and put
him on shore, and so he was obliged to take the voyage, which occupied all summer.
A minister was an board, who made them man and wife, and thus unexpectedly
did they begin life together in the New World. They came with the other emigrants
from Holland up the river to Saugerties, arriving at West Camp in January, 1710,
and there settled. Christian Myer built a log cabin on the old Dederick farm, just
south of what is now the West Camp railroad station, and cleared land at Kondout,
where a fort was built. He raised flax and wheat on his farm, and his wife often
carried a bushel of wheat on her head from her farm to the mill at Rondout, where
it was ground into flour, pulled flax while waiting, and then returned home. They
were married, as above, in 1709, and had twelve children.

HENRY VAN HOEVENBERG, M.D., of Kingston, was born in Westfield,
N. Y., May 2, 1850, and is a son of James Oliver van Hoevenberg. His education
was obtained in private schools and Kingston Academy. He then took up the
study of medicine, and in 1872 graduated from Bellevue Hospital Medical College,
New York City. He opened an office in Kingston, where he has attained to a
generous practice and is recognized as one of Kingston’s leading citizens.

Dr. van Hoevenberg has been a member of the surgical staff of the city of
Kingston Hospital since its incorporation. He is attending physician to the In-
dustrial Home for Children, Kingston, N. Y., and a member of the Medical So-
ciety of the State of New York and the Medical Society of the County of Ulster.

BIOGRAPHICAL.

701

CORNELIUS L. VAN ORDEN, County Superintendent of the Poor, was born
in the town of Gardiner, December 8, 1857. He obtained his education from the
New Paltz Academy and the Military Institute at Poughkeepsie, New York. He
immediately purchased a farm in his native town and has since followed that voca-
tion, He has added to his original purchase and now owns three hundred and fifty
acres of land.

In August, 1905, Mr. Van Orden was appointed to fill a vacancy in the office of
Superintendent of the Poor, caused by the removal of Abram Sammons, and in the
short time in which he has thus far served he has made many material improve-
ments about the institution, including the erection of a new ice-house and cooler,
and new stables for horses and cows.

He married Cornelia, daughter of Josiah LeFever, a former Supervisor of Gardi-
ner Township, and their family consists of three daughters and a son, as follows:
Sarah May, bookkeeper in the Superintendent’s office of the County House, Ger-
trude, Ethel, Elsie and Solomon.

EASTON VAN WAGENEN was born in New Paltz in 1869. After graduating
from the Normal School of his native village, he was engaged as Assistant Post-
master, four years. In 1893 he entered the employ of the Huguenot National
Bank as bookkeeper; he was soon promoted to teller, and since 1904 has been
cashier of that institution. He is also Secretary of the Lowe Brick Company of
New Paltz.

Socially, he is a member of the Knights of Pythias and in politics a Republican.
He is a son of Easton and Cornelia (Harp) Van Wagenen, of New Paltz.

LOUIS B. VAN WAGENEN was born near High Falls, N. Y., March 9, 1840,
and died in Kingston, July 19, 1906. When seventeen years old he entered the
store of Daniel Schoonmaker at Alligerville, and later was employed by tne late
John G. Kemble in the same village. On August ii, 1862, he enlisted as Corporal
in Company C, One Hundred and Twentieth Regiment, and in April, 1863, was
promoted to Sergeant for bravery. In October of the same year he was taken
prisoner by the Confederate forces at James City, Va., and suffered hardships in
several Southern prisons for a period of eighteen months, when he was exchanged.
On his return to his regiment he was promoted to Second Lieutenant, and later
to First Lieutenant. After the war Mr. Van Wagenen came to Rondout and entered
the employ of Hiram Schoonmaker. Later he was employed as clerk by Meyer
Weil, George North, Jr., A. K. Chandler, James 0. Merritt and Brodhead & Co.
In 1872 he was instrumental in forming the firm of John R. Stebbins & Co., in
which he became a partner. Later on the firm became Stebbins, Brodhead & Van
Wagenen. In 1904 the L. E. Van Wagenen Company was incorporated, with Mr.
Van Wagenen as president.

In July, 1865, Mr. Van Wagenen married Sarah C. Schoonmaker, daughter of
Colonel Schoonmaker, of Stone Ridge. She died in October, 1883, leaving three
children, who now survive, Mrs. Elbert F. MacFadden, Miss Ethel Van Wagenen

702

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

and John R, Van Wagenen. In 1884 he married Henrietta R. Askam, who died
in September, 1900.

For many years Mr. Van Wagenen was senior elder of the Rondout Presby-
terian Church. He was a trustee of the Y. M. C. A. and Montrepose Cemetery.
His death removed a prominent figure in the city’s commercial life and a man of
sterling integrity. Mr. Van Wagenen was a descendant of an old and distinguished
family, and his ancestors were prominently identified with the early history of this
county. Jacob Aartse Van Wagenen came from the village of Wagenen, Holland,
about 1660, and made his home near Creeks Locks, Ulster County. Garrett A.
Van Wagenen, grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was an officer in the
Revolutionary War. The records show that he was appointed First Lieutenant,
June 26, 1776, taken prisoner at Long Island, August 27, 1776; exchanged June,
1778. He died November 20, 1835.

VIRGIL B. VAN WAGENEN, whose ancestors were among the earliest settlers
in Ulster County, was born in the town of Rochester, this county, October 16,
1861. He obtained a public school and academic education, read law in the office
of Reuben Bernard, and since his admission to the bar in 1887 has been associated
with Mr. Bernard in practice. Politically, he is a Democrat and a member of the
Kingston Board of Water Commissioners.

Mr. Van Wagenen married Margaret DuBois, of Kingston, and they have two
children, John K. and Christina.

MACDONALD VAN WAGONER, a member of the Ulster County Bar, was
born at Wawarsing, Ulster County, N. Y., March 8, 1843. His father, Moses D. Van
Wagoner, was of Dutch descent, and his mother, Almira MacDonald, of Scotch
ancestry. MacDonald lived on his father’s farm when a boy, attended public
school and the Ellenville and Roxbury Academies. For a time he was clerk and
bookkeeper in a store in DeBruce, Sullivan County. Later he learned the trade of
carpenter and builder. When the Civil War broke out, he gaVe up all business and
enlisted as a private in the Second New York Cavalry, familiarly known \as
“Harris Light,” commanded by Judson Kilpatrick, who before the close of the
war was made a Major-General and Chief of Sherman’s Cavalry. The regiment
was one of the most efficient, valorous, active and audacious in the service, being
composed mostly of gallant young men, intensely patriotic, chivalrous, and ever
ready for daring adventure. Five of its Colonels were made Generals and many
other officers and privates promoted for conspicuous bravery. MacDonald fought
under Generals McClellan, McDowell, Pope, Bayard, Hooker, Meade, Burnside,
Pleasanton, Kilpatrick, Davies, Gregg, Custer, Grant, Sheridan, etc., participating
in the Battles of Rappahannock Station, Thoroughfare Gap, Bull Run, Fredericks-
burg, Chancellorsville, Brandy Station, Aldie, Upperville, Gettysburg, the Wilder-
ness, in many skirmishes, and with Sheridan in the Shenandoah Valley.

Famous raids were made by the regiment around Lee’s army.

Owing to his light weight, superior horsemanship and quick intelligence, Mac-
Donald was selected by Generals of both infantry and cavalry to carry dispatches

BIOGRAPHICAL.

703

and perform delicate and arduous duties that required courage and skill. This
gave him an excellent opportunity to learn much of the inside history of camp and
field, of which he availed himself by keeping a voluminous diary.

Oftentimes he carried dispatches over battlefields when bullets hummed like bees
through the air, and returned unscathed. At the Battle of Brandy Station, in which
the cavalry corps of Pleasanton and Stuart had a noted conflict, while entrusted
with a dispatch from General Kilpatrick, he was captured by Confederates, but
soon rescued by a charge of Union cavalry. At Rappahannock Station a wing of
the regiment broke under a charge of Confederates and MacDonald and Major
Harhouse, for whom he was orderly, were for a time in the midst of several hun-
dred of the enemy, who were firing, cutting, slashing and yelling ^‘Kill the damned
Yankees!” but managed to plunge through without injury.

He took part in one of the most sensational and brilliant minor events of the
Civil War. At the second Bull Run battle, a squadron of less than 100 men, in the
dusk of evening, were ordered to charge the enemy. MacDonald went with them.
The gallant band was swept by a tornado of shot and shell Few lived to return.
It is a matter of history that this handful of men actually charged twenty thousand
Confederate soldiers, being the right wing of Lee’s army commanded by Long-
street.

After his first battle, realizing the utter uselessness of the sabre as a weapon on
horseback, and how great an encumbrance fighting on foot, he strongly and in-
sistently advocated that it be cast aside and cavalry armed only with rifles and
revolvers and the soldier taught to shoot with sufficient skill to kill or disable the
enemy.

At the close of his three-years’ enlistment he returned home, studied law with
Judge Erastus Cooke at Kingston, and was admitted to the Bar, May 9, 1867. Be-
sides the practice of law, he has been a professional writer, and for a quarter of a
century official stenographer in courts of record.

Mr. VanWagoner was twice married. His first wife was Eva Hill, daughter of
Hon. Thomas Hill, of Shokan, Ulster County, who died March 10, 1894, and his
second wife, who is living, Clara Paige Carter, daughter of C. P. Carter, of Kings-
ton, whom he married June 18, 1904.

REV. E. H. VAN WINKLE, Rector of St. Clement’s Church of New York City,
has his summer home at Stone Ridge, in the old Dutch parsonage, which he pur-
chased about fifteen years ago. This property is located about one mile from the
village and for over twenty years was in the possession of the Dutch Church. Mr.
VanWinkle was born in New York City in 1842, and graduated from Columbia
College, Class of ’65. His family consists of wife (formerly Miss M. B. Cantine, a
daughter of the late James Cantine of Stone Ridge), and two children, Howard
Elmendorf, born 1889, and C. Hasbrouck, born 1899.

L. A. VAN ZANDT, who has chosen Ulster County for his country seat, is a
native of New York, where he was for many years engaged in the real estate
business. Mr. Van Zandt, like many Ulster County families, is of Holland

704

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

descent and traces his ancestry back to the colonial days. He is in possession of
a deed dated 1786, conveying a tract of land opposite to what is now known as
Peck Slip, New York, from the Mayor, Aldermen and Commonalty of the City of
New York, to Wynaut Van Zandt, bearing the old city seal, dated 1686; also deeds
of property in Wall Street and vicinity.

Mr. Van Zandt purchased his present estate in 1901, consisting of one hundred
and forty acres of farm land situated on the Sawkill road, some two miles north
of Kingston.

FRANZ X. WAGNER was born in Germany in 1837, came to America
at the age of nine years, and completed his preliminary education in
the schools of New York. Early in life Mr. Wagner displayed a taste for
mechanical inventions, and by cultivating this talent has achieved remarkable
success as an inventor. It is through his genius that the typewriters of to-day
have reached that degree of perfection, especially notable in the famous “Under-
wood,” which is conceded to be Mr. Wagner’s masterpiece of mechanical con-
struction. He has acquired fame by inventing the rotary engine and various other
equipments that economize time and power.

In 1888 Mr. Wagner purchased some forty acres of land in Denning township,
near Clary ville, where he enjoys rest and seclusion. His winter residence is at 71 1
East One Hundred and Seventieth Street, New York. He married Miss Sophia
Smidt, also a native of the “Fatherland.” They have the following children:
Annie, Harry, Frank and Fred.

GEORGE W. WASHBURN, of Saugerties, New York, the well-known brick
manufacturer, is a native of Haverstraw, Rockland County, N. Y. He was born,
September 28, 1842. Early in life he became practically familiar with all branches
of the brick industry, and in i860, in association with his brother John, began the
manufacture of that commodity in Haverstraw, and so continued up to 1869, when
they sold out. In 1867 they established a brickyard in Glasco, which they are still
operating; also one at Catskill. Mr. Washburn for thirty years conducted a brick
commission business in New York City, under the firm name of Washburn & Burns.
Mr. Washburn has been president of the Board of Water Commissioners since its
organization in Saugerties.

His family consists of wife, Alicia A. (Maginnis) Washburn and eight children —
William, Mary, George W., Jr., Katharine (Mrs. E. Clark Reed), Edwin, Caroline,
Richard and Laura; one child, Hattie, died in infancy. Eminently a self-maae
man, straightforward, forcible and clear-headed, Mr. Washburn has individually
attained a place among the leading manufacturers of the Hudson Valley. He
occupies a handsome residence in the village of Saugerties overlooking the Hudson.

JOHN T. WATSON was born in Kingston in 1876 and obtained his education
at the public schools and Ulster Academy, from which he graduated in 1893. He
then engaged in the general contracting business with his father under the firm
name of Robert Watson & Son. Among the principal structures they have erected

BIOGRAPHICAL.

705

may be mentioned No. 4 School, Kingston, the West Park Monastery, the Hutton
Building, and Burn’s Drug Store, In connection with Mr. Weaver, the firm
of Weaver & Watson constructed the Saugerties sewer. Mr. Watson is a
member of the F. & A. M,, Mt. Horeb Chapter, Rondout Commandery, Mecca
Shrine and the Knights of Honor. He is affiliated with the Presbyterian Church of
Rondout. In 1903 he was united in marriage to Miss Grace E. Atkins, of West
Park, New York. Two children have blessed this union, Raymond A. and Robert A.

Robert Watson, father of our subject, was born in Ireland in 1847. In 1867 he
came to America and located at Rondout, where he learned the trade of mason and
builder, and has been engaged in the contracting business for many years.

Robert Watson has been twice married, his first wife, who was Margaret McLean,
of Rondout, died in 1897, They had five sons — John T., Robert A. (whose sketch
appears elsewhere), J. Arthur, Richard G. and Ralph A. For his second wife, Mr.
Watson chose Miss Martha Ennist, of Stone Ridge, by whom he has one child,
Esther May.

ROBERT A. WATSON. — The subject of this sketch is prominent among the
younger business men of Rondout, He was born in Rondout in 1878, and obtained
his education at the public schools and Ulster Academy. In 1898, he went to the
Pacific Coast and learned the plumber’s trade in San Francisco and Seattle. Four
years later he returned to Kingston and established his present place of business
on Broadway. He enjoys an extensive trade in the city and surrounding country
and his establishment gives employment to a number of men. He is a staunch
Republican and takes an active interest in politics. Mr. Watson is a thirty-second
degree Scottish Rite Mason, a member of Rondout Blue Lodge No, 343, Mt. Horeb
Chapter No. 75, Rondout Commandery No. 52, Knights Templar, Cypress Temple
of the Mystic Shrine and Order of the Eastern Star.

Mr. Watson was united in marriage, October 26, 1905, to Miss Bertha Elizabeth
Powell, of Kingston.

GROVE WEBSTER, ex-Sheriff of Ulster County, was born in Delhi, Delaware
County, N. Y., May 12, 1844. When he was three years of age his parents removed
to New York City, and there in the public schools he received his education. In
1861 he came to Kingston and for two years was employed in the Post-Office with
his uncle, who v/as Postmaster at that time. In 1863, when the First National Bank
of Rondout v/as organized, he secured employment in a minor capaeity, and re-
mained with that establishment seventeen years, filling all offices to that of teller,
which he held at the time of his resignation. From 1880 to 1891 he was engaged
in the wholesale and retail hardware business in Kingston and Rondout, the firm
being known as Sahler, Reynolds & Webster, operated two stores. In 1891 he
established a livery business in Rondout, wHieh he still conducts. He also operates
liveries at Elka Park and Tannersville, N. Y,

In 1871 Mr. Webster was appointed City Treasurer and held that office until
.1888. He was the first Treasurer of the City of Kingston, after its organization.

7o6

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

In 1903 he was elected to the office of Sheriff of Ulster County for a term of three
years, his term expiring January i, 1907.

Mr. Webster is a member of all the Masonic organizations, and has held the
office of Recorder in Rondout Commandery since its organization in 1871. He is
also a member of Mecca Temple, A. O. M. S., of New York City, and the Kingston
Lodge of Elks. He was married, February 20, 1867, to Alice A. Rowley, and six
children have been born to them, of whom three are now living — Mrs. Martha
C. Snyder, of Newburgh, N. Y. ; Grove Webster, Jr., Under Sheriff from 1903 to
1907, and Helen L., both of Kingston.

H. S. WELLS, President of the village of Ellenville, and one of its most pro-
gressive business men, was born at Stone Ridge, Ulster County, April 21, 1867.
He was educated in the local schools and worked as a public lock-tender on. the
Delaware and Hudson Canal for two years. He then accepted a position at High
Falls as telegraph operator for the same company for a like period of time, when
he was appointed to a similar position in Ellenville. He is now President of the
Delaware River Telephone Company and General Manager of the Telegraph and
Telephone Company. In politics Mr. Wells is a Republican. He is foreman of the
Scoresby Hook and Ladder Company, and is identified with local fraternal and
benevolent institutions. He married Miss Cora B. Schoonmaker.

ISAAC N. WEINER, son of Samuel and Anna (Mellis) Weiner, was born in
New York City, July 8, 1854. When he was four years of age his parents re-
moved to Rondout, where he attended the public schools, and in 1868 was gradu-
ated from Bryant & Stratton’s Business College in New York. In 1881 he and
his brother, Richard, were taken into partnership in their father’s wholesale wine
and liquor house, which was established in 1858. After their father’s death the
brothers continued the business until 1890, when our subject purchased the in-
terest of Richard, and has since conducted the business alone. Under his man-
agement the patronage has steadily increased until to-day Mr. Weiner has the
largest wholesale liquor business in the county, his trade extending throughout
the State.

Politically Mr. Weiner is a Democrat, and although offered the nominations for
Mayor, Senator and Assemblyman, has declined all political positions. Hs is a
member of the Board of Trade, the Kingston, Rondout and Manhattan Clubs, the
State Firemen’s Association; has taken the various chairs in Masonry, and is iden-
tified v/ith the leading fraternal and social organizations of the city. Mr. Weiner
has been a trustee of the Board of Education under the consolidation act. He is
also a director of the Carnegie Library; trustee of the Kingston Hospital; presi-
dent of the United Hebrew Charities of Kingston, and president of the Chamber
of Commerce. Weiner Hose Co., of Kingston, is named in his honor.

He was married April 28, 1880, to Miss Carrie Blue, of Brooklyn. They have
four children: Anna, Edwin, Harry and Carolyn. Mr. Weiner is one of Ulster
County’s liberal-minded, public-spirited citizens, subscribing generously to all ob-
jects of public benefit.

BIOGRAPHICAL.

707

HON. FREDERICK L. WESTBROOK, for many years one of the ablest jurists
in Ulster County, was born October 17, 1828, in the town of Marbletown. A son
of Jonathan and Maria (Hasbrouck) Westbrook, he was a descendant of the old
colonial stock. He read law in the office of Hon. Theodore R. Westbrook, and was
admitted to the Bar in 1851. In 1857 he formed a law partnership with his pre-
ceptor (T. R. & F. L. Westbrook), which continued until 1873. In 1854 he was
elected County Judge, serving four years, and in 1868 was elected District
Attorney. For many years he was counsel for several large corporations in the
county, including the West Shore Railroad. He was closely identified with the
school interests of Kingston and served several years as a member of the Board of
Education.

In 1857 Judge Westbrook married Elsie Anna Burhans. Six children were, born
to them — Frederick Arthur, deceased, and Amelia J. and Anna M., wife of F. H.
Sanford of Bridgeport, Conn., who still survive him; John S., Alfred B. and Bertha
died while young.

JOHN J. WHALEN, Superintendent of the Beach Mills, Binnewater, was born
at High Falls, N. Y., June 14, 1853. At the age of thirteen he entered the F. O.
Norton Cement Works as mucker (handling barrels), in which capacity he worked
three years. He was employed for two years as butcher for Luke W. Krom at High
Falls. The following years he was employed in various positions about the cement
works, was finally promoted to cooper boss at High Falls, and later assigned to
operating the old water mill at that place. In 1882 he was transferred to Binne-
water as boss cooper. In a few years he was promoted to the position of foreman
of the works and later he became Assistant Superintendent. In 1903 Mr. Whalen
was made Superintendent of the Beach Mills, which position he now occupies. These
mills employ a force of about three hundred hands.

Mr. Whalen married Catherine Flynn, and they have a family of six children,
Thomas J., Mary C., John P., Anna E., Catherine M. and Francis X.

HENRY E. WIEBER, late of the city of Kingston, was born in Poughkeepsie,
New York, November 4, 1858. When he was two years of age his parents removed
to Rondout, where his father, Emil Wieber, engaged in the coppersmith business
with James Murphy, under the firm name of Wieber & Murphy.

Henry Wieber’s education was obtained in the public schools of Kingston and
Eastman’s College, Poughkeepsie. He worked for a time as bookkeeper and sales-
man in his father’s establishment, and when nineteen years of age embarked in the
stove and tinware business for himself, occupying a store on Broadway in Rondout.
Prosperity attended him and later he purchased the building on Broadway which
he occupied during recent years. Several years ago, Mr. Wieber established a
branch store in Tannersville, New York, which he has since conducted.

Mr. Wieber was a Republican and achieved some prominence in local politics. In
1887 he was elected Alderman and held that office in 1888 and 1889. In 1895 he
was elected to the office of Mayor and served one term. He was a member of the

70S

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

Spring Street Lutheran Church, and for years served as its Treasurer and a member
of its Council.

He was a member of Rondout Lodge No. 343, F. & A. M. ; Mt. Horeb Chapter,
R. A. M. ; Rondout Commandery No. 52, K. T. ; Mecca Temple Nobles of the
Mystic Shrine; United German Lodge of Odd Fellows, and Ulster Lodge, K. of P.
He was also a member of the Rondout Club, Rondout Social Mannerchor and the
Exempt Firemen’s Association. Mr. Wieber married Louise W. Moller of Pough-
keepsie in 1881, and they have had four children — Frederick E., Henry John, Matilda
and Amelia. Mr. Wieber died January 15, 1906, and his son, Fred E. Wieber, is
conducting the business.

EDMUND M. WILBUR, of Saugerties, was born in that village, February 18,
1855. He attended the public schools and Academy and established a grocery busi-
ness there in 1879, which he conducted thirteen years. He received the appointment
of Postmaster of Saugerties, under the Cleveland administration, and upon the
expiration of his term as Postmaster, he again established himself in the grocery
business, which he still continues. Mr. Wilbur has served in various public posi-
tions. In 1898 he was Democratic nominee for Member of Assembly. He was
Town Clerk in 1881, has served as President of the Board of Education and Super-
visor, and has been School Commissioner for the past nine years.

Mr. Wilbur has been twice married. His first wife was Catherine M. Barritt, by
whom he had one son, Charles T. Gaston. His second wife was Mary F. Smith,
by whom he has two children, Francis and Dorothy.

Gaston Wilbur, father of Edmund M., came here from Saratoga County about
1850. He was an ardent Republican up to the Greeley campaign, when he became
a Democrat and his family has since supported the Democratic party. Edmund M.
Wilbur is affiliated with Confidence Lodge, Odd Fellows, K. of P., and the Congre-
gational Church, and is one of the representative men of Saugerties.

AZARIS WINCHELL, of Shokan, was born in the town of Olive in 1842. He
attended the schools of his native place, and engaged in farming until twenty-two
years of age, when he learned the carpenter and wagonmaker’s trade, in which he
continued until 1879. He then engaged in general merchandising, and purchased
his present store at Shokan in 1887, which he has greatly enlarged and improved.
His son, Elwyn, has been associated with him in business for many years. Polit-
ically, Mr. Winchell is a Republican and served as Postmaster of Shokan under
President Harrison. He is a member of the Knights of Pythias and the I. O. O. F.

He was married in 1861 to Miss Emeline Terwilliger, by v/hom his son, Elwyn,
was born. The mother died in 1879. Mr. Winchell’s second wife was Mrs. Celia
Schutt. Jacob Winchell, father of our subject, was born at Olive in 1797. He was
a farmer and old-school Baptist preacher, and was the eldest son of Peter Winchell,
who was the first of this family born in Ulster County. The ancestry of this
family dates to Robert Winchell, who was born in England and came to America
in 1634.

BIOGRAPHICAL.

709

ALONZO E. WINNE, of the firm of A. E. & J. S. Winne, proprietors of the
“Eagle Hotel,” was born in the town of Shandaken, Ulster County, N. Y., in 1847.
After finishing his studies at the Kingston Academy, he was employed as civil
engineer on the U. & D. Railroad. In 1871 Mr. Winne engaged in the hotel busi-
ness at Mount Pleasant, where he remained two years, when he accepted the
position of keeper at the County Poorhouse. He conducted for four years the
Woodstock House, at Woodstock, N. Y., and has been connected with the Eagle
Hotel, Kingston, since 1877, in which time it has become one of the most popular
and famous hostelries in the Hudson valley.

Mr. Winne has been identified with the Masonic fraternity for twenty-six years,
including the Shrine and Cypress Temple of Albany. He married Miss Emma E.
Bryant of Delaware County.

Davis Winne, father of our subject, was a very prominent citizen of Shandaken
township, where he was born July 18, 1818. He was engaged at different times in
farming, lumbering, railroading and general trade. He took an important part in
the development and upbuilding of his township. He served three terms as Su-
pervisor of the town of Shandaken, and from 1861 to 1864 as Sheriff of Ulster
County. He was elected to the State Legislature in 1876, and again in 1886. During
the Civil War Mr. Winne was Captain of a company of ninety men under the
command of Colonel Pratt, in the Twentieth New York Regiment. He was also
actively engaged in the first draft of the war, which was made during his term of
office as Sheriff. He was a director of the Ulster County Savings Institution,
which he helped to reorganize in 1891, and served continuously as a director of the
U. &. D. R. R. since its organization in 1867. Mr. Winne held the respect and
confidence of his fellow-citizens in an unusual degree, and filled the duties of his
various high positions with entire satisfaction.

DANIEL T. WINTER was born in Greene County, New York, in 1844, and
obtained his education at the schools of his native place. When Civil War was
declared Mr. Winter enlisted in Company K, Fourth N. Y. Cavalry, serving three
years. In 1866 he located in Pine Hill, Ulster County, and engaged in the butcher
business, conducting a meat market nine years. In 1884 he embarked in the hotel
business, building the Rip Van Winkle House, which he conducted six years. In
1890 he built the Winterton, and has conducted it successfully since that time.

Mr. Winter is affiliated with Margaretville Lodge No. 386, F. & A. M. ; Franklin
Lodge, Knights of Pythias, and the G. A. R. In 1867 he was united in marriage to
Miss Susan Thompson of Pine Hill, and they have two children, Elizabeth and
Daniel T., Jr.

EDWARD WINTER, the subject of this sketch, was born at Port Jervis, New
York, April 10, 1835, and a year later removed with his parents to Rondout. In
i860 he established at Kingston a general book and stationery business. He intro-
duced the telegraph business in i860, and with his brother built and owned the
Bell Telephone Exchange of the city and county, which they controlled for many
years, selling out to the Hudson River Telephone Company. About 1875 Mr. Winter

710

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

fitted up his piano warerooms, which he has since conducted on a large scale in
connection with the book and stationery business, and handles the most celebrated
pianos made in America. He also owns and operates the transfer and express
business established by him in 1867.

His father, Archibald Winter, was a native of Brentwood, England. Born in
i8o8, he came to America in 1834, and died in 1855. His mother v^as Ann Wood,
also a native of England. Mr. Winter married Emma L. Lynch of Newark, N. J.,
and six children have blessed this union, Charles A., William Henry, Anna B., Ed-
ward N., Emma L. and George A.

Mr. Winter has been warden of the Episcopal Church for a number of years.
He is one of Kingston’s most respected citizens, his life demonstrating what can be
accomplished through diligent effort and earnest purpose.

NOAH WOLVEN. — With the death of Noah Wolven, which occurred November
I5> 1904, Ulster County lost one of its most useful and widely known citizens.
Born at Saugerties, July 25, 1835, he early in life embarked in the business of
quarrying bluestone and continued in the business for upwards of two decades.
Always an active Republican, he was appointed Postmaster of Kingston by President
Harrison in 1890, serving four years. In 1891 he established the dry goods business
which is now conducted by his son William.

Mr. Wolven, as the name implies, was of German descent, his ancestors coming
from Heidelberg, Germany, about 1730. He was married in 1865 to Sarah E.
Freer, whose forefathers were among the pioneer settlers in New Paltz.

His son William, who has succeeded him, was born in Kingston, December i,
1871, and obtained his education at the Kingston Academy and Albany Business
College. In 1895 he joined his father in the management of the store. He is a
member of the Masonic Order and the Kingston Club, and one of the directors of
the Kingston National Bank.

LEWIS H. WOOLSEY, President of the New Paltz Savings Bank, was born
in New Paltz, March 19, 1837. He attended the educational institutions of his
native village, and has been engaged in farming the greater portion of his life,
devoting his attention, more particularly, to fruit raising for the past twenty years.

Mr. Woolsey has served as trustee of the village, and since 1886 has been a
director and on the Investigating Committee of the New Paltz Savings Bank. In
1903 he was chosen President of that institution. Mr. Woolsey has been twice
married. His first wife was Miss Hannah M. LeFevre. For his second wife he
chose Miss Maria Ann Booth. His children are Gertrude, now deceased, Grace,
Ruth, Edna, Lulu May and Leon Harold.

Mr. Woolsey traces his ancestry to George Woolsey, born October 27, 1610,
whose grandfather was a near relative of the distinguished Cardinal Woolsey.

CHARLES YOUNG, one of the most progressive fruit growers of Marlborough
township, was born in Cedar Cliff, New York, in 1848. After obtaining a liberal
education he aided his father on the fruit farm and in their dock business, which

BIOGRAPHICAL.

711

consisted in dealing in coal and feed, and acting as agent for the Romer &
Tremper and the Cornell Steamboat Companies, until 1891, when the dock was
leased. Mr. Young then confined his efforts to fruit growing, in which he has
been very successful, having over one hundred acres now under cultivation.

In 1882 Mr. Young married Marion A. Peck of Troy, N. Y. They have three
children, Ralph P., William C. and Adelaide T.

Mr. Young’s ancestors were among the early settlers of Ulster. His great-grand-
father, John Young, came to America from England in 1756, and in 1760 located
in the town of Marlborough. Edward Young, his grandfather, was born there in
1780, and William C. Young, father of our subject, was born on the old homestead,
August 20, 1815. In 1845 he married Althea Harcourt, and they had five children,

GEORGE A. YOUNG has been a resident of the village of Marlborough, where
he conducts a grist-mill, since 1902. Mr. Young was born in Chenango County,
New York, January 30, 1849. Previous to locating in Marlborough he was en-
gaged in the flour and feed business for some twenty-five years at Oneonta and
Hobart, New York.

Mr, Young married Miss Louise Elwell of Otsego County, and they have five
children, four daughters and one son. He is prominently identified with the
Masonic fraternity, and was for three years Master of St. Andrew’s Lodge No. 289,
at Hobart. He is also a member of the Knights of Pythias and the I. O. O. F.
Mr. Young was a member of the Third Separate Company, National Guards, at
Oneonta, N. Y., for nine years, in which he was Second Sergeant.

Joseph Young, great-grandfather of our subject, was a native of Stamford, Conn.,
and located in Otsego County in 1783. He served in defense of his country in the
War of 1812. Mr. Young’s ancestors on his maternal side were also among the
early settlers of the State and encountered many perils from the hostile Indian
tribes.

GEORGE YOUNG of Ellenville, was born in Sullivan County, June 26, 1841.
He attended local schools and was engaged in farming and lumbering up to 1872,
when he came to Ulster County and started a foundry and machine shop in
Ellenville, and the following year engaged in the paper manufacturing business in
Napanoch, which he has since continued, employing from twenty to thirty hands.

In 1886 Mr. Young was elected Sheriff of Ulster County. His family consists
of wife, formerly Miss Sarah Schoonmaker, a daughter of Andrew Schoonmaker,
and two sons, Chester, born February 8, 1877, a graduate of Cornell University,
Class of 1898, with degree of B. S. Chester married Jennie Devine, a daughter of
Dwight Devine, Esq,, of Ellenville, and they have one son, George Chandler.

George Young, Jr., born August 24, 1878, is also a graduate of Cornell Uni-
versity, Class of 1900, B. A. R. George married tielen D. Binkard of Brooklyn,
N. Y., who was also a graduate of Cornell University of the same class and degree.

WILLIAM ZEIGLER, of Saugerties, was born in New York City, April 3, 1868.
When quite young he came with his parents to Saugerties, and for a time attended

712

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

the Academy. After leaving school he assisted his father, Louis Zeigler, in their
business, eventually succeeding him. This business his father established in 1865,
and it is perhaps the most finely appointed liquor establishment in the State outside
of New York City and Buffalo. It is essentially a gentlemen’s resort and caters
exclusively to the better class of Saugerties’s citizens.

Mr. Zeigler has been a member of the Village Board for four terms, and has
also served as Chief of the Fire Department. His family consists of three daughters
and one son, namely, Caroline Blanch, Jennie, Louise and William.

DANIEL H. ZOLLER was born in Wilbur, Ulster County, N. Y., in 1859. He
obtained his education at the public schools and Ulster Academy, and in 1890 en-
gaged in the coal business at Wilbur. Five years later he added a grain and
grocery establishment, and in 1897 purchased the James cement plant and trans-
formed it into an ice storehouse, with a capacity of ten thousand tons, all
of which is marketed in New York. Mr. Zoller has been identified with the Re-
publican party since reaching his majority, and for many, years has been a member
of the Republican County Committee. He has frequently been tendered, but has
always declined, the nomination to public office. He was one of the organizers
and deacons of the English Lutheran Church of Rondout, and is trustee of the
Wilbur Sunday School Union. He was united in marriage to Miss Ella Doran of
Wilbur, and they have four children, Catherine, Frederick J., Evaline and Ella.
Daniel Zoller, father of our subject, came from Germany and located in Wilbur in
1848, and engaged in the mercantile business. His mother, Salome (Gruikway)
was a native of France.

INDEX

' I ,

INDEX.

PAGE

Andrieson, Jacob 42

Assessment list, Foxhall & Hurley. 67

Ashfordby, Wm. Sheriff 79

Articles Asso. Signers 123

Anderson, Captain 220

Armory, State 228

Apples, Newtown Pippin 251

Alder Lake 261

Ardonia 336

Adams, Aaron 366

Addison, John 484,522

Armstrong, John 484

Abbott, Chas. A 522

Brodhead, Daniel, Sheriff 74

Beresford, Christopher 75

Belknap, Capt. Isaac 191

Bogardus Hotel 206

Bancker, Gerard 207

Burgoyne’s Surrender 208

Board of Trade, Kingston 231

Brick Industry _ 233

Butterfield, Gen. Daniel 249

Bruyn, Soph r in e 254

“ Jacobus 254,374

“ Jacob 373

Bevier, A. D 257

“ David 281

“ Louis 283,392

Beecher, Rev. James 260

Balsam Lake 261

Benton, Dr. Barnabus 271

Beekman, Col. Henry 275, 343

Brodhead, Capt. Chas 277

Beatty, John 278

Bond, Capt 290

Bishop, Jacob 327

Brodhead’s Bridge 328

Boice, Zadock P 328

Boiceville 329

Brown’s Station 329

Brink, Capt. Andrew 364

Big Indian Legend 369

Brickyards, Ulster Town 382

Bonesteel, Philip 403

Bluestone, Woodstock 408

“Byrdcliffe” 408

Blom, Dominie 41 1

Bellmont, Governor 418

Burtsell, Rev. R. L 436

“ Public Spirit.. 438
Bluestone, varieties 542

PAGE

Catskill Mountains 17

“ “ Formation of.. 23

County, Bounds of 27

Chambers, Thomas 37, 41, 51

Clinton, George 77, 113, 212

“ Governor 194, 207

“ James 113

“ DeWitt 420

Court Organizations 78

Court House and Prison 82

Continental Congress, First 121

Comm, of Safety, List Members .... 142

Columbus Point 208, 220

Court House Rebuilt 212

“ “ New, & Clerk’s Office 217

Chevaux de frise, import, of 197

Continental Army Dissolution, 1783. 202

Council of Safety 207, 212

Canal, Delaware & Hudson 221

Cement Discovered 222

Canal Abandoned 222

Cornell Steamboat Co 222

“ Thomas 222

Coykendall, S. D 222

Civic Divisions and Changes 225

City Hall, Kingston 228

City Departments 230

Cement Industry 233

Curfew Law 239

Centennial of State 239

Close, James 259

Cook, H. D 260

Cool, Cornells 262

Coe, Daniel 270

College Boat Races 273

Cantine, Moses, Jr 283

“ Peter 488

Craft, Dr. Herman T 283

Carpenter, Joseph 295

Cottin, Jean 309

Cold Brook.. 329

Cay wood, Andrew J 334

Clintondale 334

Cornell, William 335

Clermont Steamboat 364

Crispell, Peter 368, 372

“ Dr. Peter, Jr 500

“ Dr. A 501

Crystal Spring Wa. Co 371

Creiger, Capt. Martin 384

Catholics Settled at Saugerties. . . . 421

Crowley, James 428

Coombe, Rev. William 462

Court, Supreme, Established 482

‘‘ Common Pleas 482

INDEX.

PAGE

Cooke, Erastus 486

Chambers, Dr. Jacob 503

Chipp, Lieut, Chas, W., U. S. N — 515

Camp, Rev. C. W 5i5

Church, Kleine Esopus Dutch 248

“ Marbletown Dutch 281

“ List New Paltz Pastors... 316

“ New Paltz Methodist 316

“ “ “ Catholic 316

“ Plattekill Methodist 337

“ New Hurley Reformed 340

“ Pentecostal 340

" Rochester Dutch 345

“ Woodstock 405

“ Old Dutch, Kingston 410

“ Jay Gould Memorial 414

“ First Catholic, Rondout... 427

“ St. Joseph’s 433, 444

” St. Mary’s, Rondout ... 436, 437

“ Rosendale Catholic 439

“ West Hurley Catholic 442

“ Wilbur 447

“ Port Ewen Catholic 448

“ East Kingston “ 449

“ Ellenville “ 45 1

“ Milton and Marlboro,

Catholic 452

“ Gardiner and New Paltz,

Catholic . . ._ 453

“ German Catholic 453

“ St. Peter’s “ 455

“ Polish “ 456

“ Catholic Institutions 457

“ Presbyterian, Kingston.... 464

“ “ Rondout . . . 462

“ Trinity, Saugerties. 466

“ St. John’s Epis., Kingston. 466

“ Christ, Marlboro 467

“ All Saints’, Milton 467

“ Ascension, Esopus 467

Holy Spirit, Kingston 467

“ St. Peter’s, Stone Ridge.. 468

“ St. John’s Memorial, High

Falls 468

“ St. Paul’s, Ellenville 468

“ Holy Cross, Clintondale. . . 470

“ All Saints’, Rosendale 469

“ Holy Cross, Clintondale . . . 470

“ “ “ Kingston 470

“ First Lutheran, West Camp 472

“ “ “ Woodstock 474

“ “ “ Pine Grove 474

“ “ “ Rondout . 475

“ Lutheran Immanuel, “ . 475

“ “ Ellenville 475

Church

PAGE

Lutheran Saugerties 476

Plattekill 476

Redeemer, Rondout 476

Valley Meeting House 478

Friends’, Greenheld 479

Butterville 479

Dutch Trading

De Hulter, Johan

Davidson, Christopher ! . ] ] ]

DuBois, Louis 75, 200, 264,2^,295,

Doll, Dominie

Deer Park

Denning Settlers | .

Dimick, J. W. & Co i i

Deyo, Abraham

Henry i ;

Hendricus

“ Irving

Reuben

Joseph

Daillie, Peter

Davis, William J

DuBois, Conrad

DePuy, Moses

Dewitt, Charles ^56, 48^

Dutcher, J. W

Dongan, Governor

Dougherty, Rev. James 434,

Duffy, Rev. J. J

Doctors, Old Uls. County

De Lafayette, Gen. Marquis

310
205

243

244

250

255

269

270

271

311
327
330
343
522

485

366

417

446

435

494

513

Esopus Creek 23, 368

“ Indians 32, 387

“ War 37

“ War of 1663 39

“ Dark Day 47

Elting, John, Surrogate 79

Ellison, Col. Thomas 109

Elmendorf, Conrad 208, 484

Lucas 217, 484

“ Family 264

Ellenville & Kingston R’way 224

Electric Trolley System 224

Eagle Hotel 237

Esopus Settlers 247

Ellsworth, William 248

Esopus Tavern-Keepers 250

Evans, Capt. John 254, 288, 343

INDEX.

Ill

PAGE

Elting, Philip 270

“ Noah 269

Ellenville 401

“Elm Tree Grave” 406

Elting, Dr. Richard 501

French and Indian War

Fort Schuyler

Floyd, William

Flight to Hurley

Fire Dep. Organization.
Fruit-Crate Factories . .

Father Farrelly

Fowler, Chas. A

Freer, Samuel

108

200

207

208

215

272

433

488

505

General Training

Gates, Gen. Horatio

Gas Introduction

Goetchus, Rev. Stephen

Gardiner Settlers

“ Soldiers

“ Merchants . . .

Gould’s Furlough Lake.
Garton, Capt. Thomas . .

Goetchus, Rev. J. M

Giugou, A. A

Graham, Dr. John G...

“ George G

“ James G

“ Chauncey

Gardinier, Berent

Gardiner Weekly

Gurnee, Captain

210

229

248

253

256

261

277

315

370

377

572

484

511

536

Hurley Grantees

“ Population, 1703

“ Trustees

“ Capital of State..

“ Lands Distributed

Highland Forts, Fall of. .
Hallenbeek, Bernardus . . .

Holt, Thomas M

Howell, James

Halsted, Lyman ^

Harrison, Francis

Hallock, Edward

“ George

Handley, Jacob

Halt, Aunt Huldah

Honk Falls Power Co

Heath, Dr. S. I

Hardy, Stephen

Helm, Dr. Benjamin

Holt, John

PAGE

, 262
, 264
. 264
. 265
, 266

294, 295,

193

208

248

270

273

290

477

302

337

401

404

432

496

504

Indain Race 30

Indians, Conference with 35

Island Dock, Rondout 237

Ice Harvesting 382

Indian Fort 385> 386

“ Raid 395

Irish Immigration 424

Jochemsen, Lieut. Hendrick 87

Johnson, Sir William 1 15

Jay, Chief Justice 206

Jogues, Father 416

Jay, John 418, 483

Hurley, Nieuw Dorp 38

Hendricks, Mattys 41

Highlands Prec. Assessment Roll.. 71

Heymans, Albert 75

Hardenburgh, Col. Johannis 109

“ Settlers 259

“ Early Preachers 260

“ Johannis F 396

“ Jacob 487

Hasbrouck, Gen. Joseph 255, 334

“ Abner 257

“ Zachariah 269, 335

“ Capt. Jonathan 289

“ Abraham 310

“ Elias 404

“ Abraham B 485

“ Solomon 521

Kregier, Martin 39

Kingston, First Assignment Lots and

Dwellings 65

“ List Freeholders & Inhab. 65

“ Overseers 75

“ List Refusing to Sign Ar-
ticles Association 129

“ Burning of 194, 209

“ Location, Ancient Names. 204

“ Cradle of State, 1777 205

“ Legislature at, 1777 205

“ Close of Revolution 214

“ Bid for National Capital.. 214

“ Early Financial Condition 215

“ Village 216

“ First Steam Day Line 219

“ Point Park 225

INDEX.

PAGE

Kingston, City 226

“ Town Ring Rule 227

“ Water Supply 229

“ Manufng Interests 232

“ First Doctor 236

“ Hospital 236

“ In Rebellion 240

Honorable Citizenship . . . 241

Kromville 328

Kniffin, William 333

Kocherthal, Rev. J 363, 472

Kenyon, W. S 487

Kingston Hospital Organiza 495

Kiersted, Dr. H 497

Lands, Uls. Co., Primary Title to.. 39, 48

“ Record of Papers 48

Lewis, Capt. Parent ^

Light Horse Co. Enrollment, 1778.. 147

Lefferts, Jacobus 209

Livingston, Abraham 21 1

“ Robert R 21 1

Library, Public 231

Lefevre, John J 248

Lake, Wells 270

Lloyd Merchants 271

“ Cemetery 272

Lake Mohonk 283, 347

Lattintown 303

Lefevre, Jacob 321

“ Frank J 321

Lake Minnewaska 348

“ Katrine 381

Lakes Awosting, Maratanza 390

Lackawack, Fort 395

Lawyers, Ancient Ulster 486

Lawton, William 488

Lounsbery, William 489

Loughran, Dr. Robert 502

PAGE

McEntee, James S 221

Jarvis 221

Mansion House, Rondout 237

McKinstry, Daniel 256

Merwin, Samuel 259

Marbletown Settlers 277

“ Capital of State 279

Militia, Marbletown Muster Roll... 281

Marlborough Reorganization 288

“ Delega. Provin. Con-

ven. and Congress. 290

“ Military Officers, 1775 291

“ Tavern Keepers, 1776. 293

“ Mills 293

“ Settlers 295

“ Slaves in 297

Milton 298, 301

Marlborough, List Soldiers in Rebel-
lion 299

“ Prominent Men 300

“ Postmasters 300

Milton Ferry 302

Postmasters 303

Merritt, David 303

Marlborough, People, Lands, etc 304

“ Fruit Production 305

Modena 336

Milk, Benjamin 366

Myer, James, Jr 381

Montross, Jacob 404

Mead, George 407

Maxwell, Father 430

Madden, Rev. John 432

McGlyn’s Reconciliation 436

Me Cue, Rev. E 447

Medical Society Organized 492

Masonic Lodge, Kingston 512

“ Celebration, Kingston 514

Marbletown Assessm*ent Roll 68

“ Town Overseers 75

Military Roll, Marbletown and

Hurley 87

Militia, Uls. Co., 1685 88

“ Officers 90

List Capt. Wessel Ten-

Broeck’s Company 00

‘‘ List Uls. Co. Troops, 1715. 91

Minute Men 190

Montgomery, Gen. Richard 199

Mary Powell, Steamboat 220

Native Trees, Plants and Vege-

tables,

Ulster County

New Palles Assess. Roll

. . 70

Niessen, Christian

.. 86

Nicholson,

Col. John

.. 199

Niew Dorp

.. 263

Nottingham, William

.. 279

New Paltz

Settlement

.. 308

a a

Church, 1683

.. 311

u n

Ancient Marriages . .

.. 311

a it

Militia Co., 1738

.. 312

u u

Citizens, 1774

•• 315

a u

“Dusine,” 1785

• . 315

U {(

in Revolution

.. 316

INDEX.

PAGE

New Paltz, in Rebellion, List

Deaths

. 317

t( i(

Village

. 317

ii a

Banks

. 318

a a

Fire Department

. 319

Burial Places

. 320

Prominent Men

. 320

a a

Hamlets

> 323

Newspaper Making

■ 505

Ulster County Gazette. 506

((

Plebeian & Argus

. 506

Kingston Journal

. 507

“ Freeman

■ 507

Rondout Courier

■ 507

“

Kingston Leader

“ Express

. 508

■ 509

{(

Saugerties Telegraph . .

. S09

“ Post

. 509

“

Ellenville Journal

510

“ Press

510

New Paltz Independent. 510

“ “ Times

510

“

Pine Hill Sentinel

510

Marlborough Record . .

510

((

Rosendale Journal . . . .

511

((

Highland Independent..

511

Old Senate House

Ostrom, Rev. James L.

Oliver, James

“ Andrew

Olive, Streams

“ Settlement

“ Village

“ Hamlets

“ Early Settlement

Ostrander, David

“ Daniel

Overlook Mountain . ,

O’Reilly, Father

Ostrander, Violetta M,
Oliver, Dr. James

206

268, 461

278

280

. ... 324
. ... 327
. ... 329
.... 330
. ... 330
. ... 334
. ... 337

406

422

480

. ... 497

Pells, Evert

Pawling, Henry

Provincial Convention, 1775

Palmer, Col. Thomas

Politics, Ancient

Philharmonic Society

Postal Facilities

Public Building

Ponckhockie

Pratt, Col. Zadock

75, 86
. . 121

.. 191
. . 216
.. 230
.. 234
.. 235

238

240

PAGE

Port Ewen 250

Pell, Robert L 251

Parker, Alton B 251

Poughkeepsie Ferry 259

Pratt, George W 271

Pawling, Capt. Levi 277

Powell, Jacob 302

Purdy, Silas 303

Plattekill Streams 332

“ Patents 333

“ First Vineyard 333

“ “ Town Meeting 334

“ Ancient Preachers 335

“ Village 335

“ Post Office 340

“ Doctors and Lawyers.... 341

Military History 342

Palatines 362

Pine Hill 367

Prendergast, Rev. P. J 435

Presbyterianism, Marlboro 460

Philips, Rev. B. T 463

Pine Hill Optic 510

Rocks and Geological Features 19

Rondout Creek 23

Rum and the Indians 34

Rochester Assess. Roll, Old 69

Roll, Muster, Capt. Hasbrouck’s

Company, 1746 106

Regiment, Col. Chas. Clinton’s Mil-
itary Co. List, 1758.. no

“ First Uls. Co., Capt. Not-
tingham, 1758 1 12

“ 2nd Uls. List, 1773 115

“ Fourth Brigade, Compo-
sition 144

“ Uls. List of Officers, 1775 145

“ Second, List and Strength 157

“ “ Enrollment 161

“ Third, Enrollment 169

“ Fourth, Enrollment 181

“ Third, Officers 198

“ Fifth, “ 201

Road Building, First.... 217

Railway Development 222

Rondout Incorporation 226

Post Office 235

Random Notes of Kingston 236

Rondout Light House 237

Rhinebeck Ferry 238

Regiment, 120th Vol 240

156th Vol 241

Rifton Glen 250

INDEX.

PAGE

Rosemoimt 251

Rose, George W 271

Roosa, Gysbert 277

Relje, Dennis 287

Roe, Cornwall, S 302

Rice, Rev. Phineas 337

Rochester Settlers and Voters, 1740. 344

“ Streams 346

“ Early Militia Officers... 348

“ Incorporation 352

“ Old Merchants 353

Rosendale Settlers 355

“ Cement 357

Rogers, Henry W 367

Ronieyn, Dirick 413

Ruggles, Chas. H 485

Romeyn, Herman M 485

" William H 507

Ryon, Charles M 526

Shawangimk Mountains 18

Sam’s Point 18, 390

Small Streams 24

Swanandale 27

Stoll, Jacob J 36, 42

Smith, Ensign 36

Slecht, Cornelius Barent 42

Shawangimk Assess. Roll, Old 70

Swartwout, Roeloff 73, 481

“Silver Bullet” 197

Schoonmaker, Marius 209, 486

Sleght, Henry G 213

Steamboats, Speed Compared 218

“ “Norwich” 218

“ First, “New London”.. 218

“ Speed of Old 220

Stages and Street Railways 224

Street Horse-cars 224

Sanitariums 236

Street Grading, First 238

Steele, John B 240, 486

Smith, Rev. T. G 248

Schoonmaker, Adjutant A 253

Sammons, Matthew 254

Schoonmaker, Isaac 255

Seager, Samuel M 259

“ Hiram 260

Saxton, Silas 271

Schantz, Philip 271, 273

Smiley, Albert K 286, 347

Sands, David 301, 477

Shokan 328

Schoonmaker, Capt. J 343, 349

“ Lucas E 352

PAGE

Schoonmaker, Family 352

Saugerties Streams 360

“ Settlers and Grants 361

Shandaken, First Town Meeting... 366

“ Modern 368

“ Tanneries 370

Sherrill, E 370

Snyder, Col. H. D. H 370

Slide Mountain 371

Shandaken Churches 371

Schwarzwalder Factory 371

Shandaken Fort 372

Shawangunk Settlers 374

“ Freeholders, 1728 .... 375

Smedes, Benjamin, Jr 376

Shawangunk Patriots 376

“ Schoonmakers 377

“ Factories 378

“ Bonifaces 378

“ Derivation 379

Smith, Rev. John 428

Sisters of Charity 433

Sweeney, Rev. E. M 446

Smith, Rev. Charles J 460

Sudam, John 485

Schoonmaker, Augustus 487

Sharpe, Gen. George H 488

Stebbins, S. L 488

Smith, Dr. George C 502

School Districts Formed 518

Schools, State Normal, New Paltz. 529

Scudder, Myron T 529

Schools, Saugerties 530

“ Ellenville 532

Sloop “Dollie” 536

Sloops, List of Old 539

Schools, Rochester 350

“ Rosendale 356

“ Commissioners 519

“ of County, 1880, 1906,

Compared 520

“ Kingston 521

“ Kingston Academy 522

“ First Kingston French

Class 524

“ Kingston Academy Princi-
pals 524

“ Ulster Academy 525

“ Consolidated 525

“ New Paltz 526

“ New Paltz Academy 527

Towne House 81

Taylor, “the Spy” 197, 265

INDEX.

Vll

PAGE

TenBroeck, Col Wessel 206

Tappen, Christopher 21 1

Telegraph, First in Kingston 228

Telephone, “ “ “ 228

Twaalfskill Club 239

Terpening, T. F 248

Tuthill, Selah 255

Tories 292

Tuthill, Daniel S 301

Tucker’s Corners 337

Ulster County Formed 76

“ and Delaware Railway 223

“ Town of 227

“ Park 250

Unionville 337

Ulster, First Town Meeting 381

“ Town, Old Family Names.. 383

Van der Sluys, Andries 42, 410,

Van Imbroch, Dr. Gysbert 74,

Van Buren, Capt Cornelius

Vaughan, Sir John

Van Cortlandt, Pierre

Vaughan’s Vandals at Kingston

Van Steenburgh House

Vanderlyn, Nicholas, Jr

Van Buren, Tobias

Von Beck, George F

Vanderlyn, J. N

VerNooy, Cornelius

Van Buren, John 485,

Van Etten, J. E

Van Hoevenberg, Dr. H

“ “ Dr. J. O

Van Wagenen, J. H

496

195

207

209

210

215

216
226

322

392

514

489

498

499
534

PAGE

Wallkill River 24

Wild Animals 27

Wildwijk 35, 74

“ County Seat 81

Wallace, Sir James 195

Washington’s Visit to Kingston 213

Wynkoop, Dirck 214, 484

Wurts, John and Maurice 222

Wallkill Valley Railway 223

West Shore Railway 223

Wiltwyck Chapter D. A. R 236

“ 238

War of 1812, Esopus Soldiers 249

W oolsey, Richard 287

West Shokan 328

Winchell, Lemuel 330

Winne, Davis 372

Wawarsing Clan 387

“ Indian Name 388

“ Topography 390

“ Streams 390

“ Settlers 391

‘‘ Pioneers 392

“ Colonial Period 393

“ Revolutionary Period . 394

“ Business History 397

“ Families 398

“ Industries 399

“ At Present 400

Woodstock Settlers 403

“ Tavern Keepers 404

“ Incorporation 404

“ Supervisors 405

“ Watershed 408

Wright, William B 485

Westbrook, T. R 487

“ F. L 488

Young, Dr. Thomas 120

Y. M. C. A 236

Vlll

INDEX.

ILXUSTRATIONS AND PORTRAITS

PAGE

Alliger, John B 34

Benedict, Thomas E 384

Bernard, Reuben 484

Black, Peter C 178

Boice, Hewitt 106

“ Zadoc P 64

Borden, John Gail 574

Brigham, Henry R 130

Bruyn, Col. Jacobus Severyn 124

Burtsell, Richard Lalor 416

Cantine, Martin 362

Clearwater, Alphonso T Frontispiece

Cornish, James C 370

Court House 94

Crispell, Abraham, M.D 498

Davis, Dewitt C 324

Dederick, Addison E 160

DeWall Tavern 216

Deyo, Thomas J 578

Divine, Dwight 396

DuBois, Nathaniel H 298

DuFlon House 212

Durkee, Eugene R 40

Eastgate, J. F. Scoresby, M.D 388

Ellis, Charles G 459

Everett, James H 156

Frame, Clarence T 275

Fratsher, John D 58

Gill, Davii Jr 100

Graham, Nicholas R 52

Griffeth, Henry 366

Hall, Charles Mercer 465

Hasbrouck, House 220

“ Josiah, M.D 494

Hendricks, Clarence P 166

“ Howard 204

Hiltebrant, Conrad 244

Hoffman House 224

Hoornbeek, John C 402

Houghtaling House 228

Ingalls, F._ W., M.D 502

Jagger, Joseph 142

Kennedy, David, M.D 82

Klock, Jay E 504

Lang, Charles C 248

Lawatsch, Anthony H 256

Le Fevre, Frank J 312

PAGE

Le Fevre, Jacob 312

Linson, John J 481

Mauterstock, Albert 172

Maxwell, John 360

McCue, Edward J 440

Millard, James 262

Mohonk Lake 118

Neal, Benjamin F., M.D 398

Neidlinger, Adam 46

Old Academy 232

Ostrander, Dewitt W 332

Paper Plant The Martin Cantine

Co.’s 362

Parker, Alton B 22

Phinney, James E 252

Pratt, Harcourt J 268

Reed, Albert, M.D 270

Reformed Church of Marbletown . . 284

Reynolds, Augustus W 70

“ Henry H 70

Rice, Jacob 76

Rose, Alonzo 136

Ruttenber, E. M 17

Sahler, Charles O., M.D 112

Sears, Hector 486

Senate House 208

Shafer, Col. C. B 146

Shear, Sylvester R 517

Smiley, Albert K 190

Snyder, Robert A 364

Staples, Alvah S 28

Stow, Daniel B 260

Tappen House 236

Terwilliger, Uriah E 392

Traver, Chester H 472

Tremper, Captain Jacob H 196

Vanderlyn, John N 306

Van Gelder, Jacob 88

Van Hoevenberg, Henry, M.D 491

Van Slyke, John G 409

Van Steenburgh House 240

Walton, Charles W 488

Webster Grove 184

Wolven, Noah 200

Woolsey, C. Meech 287

Wynkoop House 238

Young, Charles 292

INDEX.

BIOGRAPHICAL

PART II.

Abbey, Henry

Ackert, Charles J

Alliger, John B

Anderson, Captain A. E

Atkins, DuBois G

Auchmoody, Milton O

Baisden, John J

Bannon, Lawrence F

Barman, Peter

Barnes, Andrew N

Beeres, Louis

Bell, George N

Bennett, Lewis F

Bernard, Reuben

Betts, James A

Bishop, Asa

Black, Daniel, Jr

“ Lewis D

Peter C

Blake, William H. D

Bogardus, Howard C

Boice, Hewitt

“ Jesse B

“ Zadoc P

Booth, William

Borden, John Gail

Boyer, Warren L

Boyle, John

Briggs, W. A

Brigham, Henry R

Brink, Joel

“ Theo.dore

Brodhead, Abraham D

Browne Mfg. Co., The W. G.
Bruyn, Col. Jacobus Severyn..

Bryant, Thomas J

Buckley, Thomas Townsend...

Burgevin, George

Burhans, Augustus R

“ Charles

“ Cornelius

“ William

Burtsell, Richard Lalor

Cantine, Charles F

“ Martin

“ Peter N

Carpenter, Major Oliver P

PAGE

545

546

547

548

5^8

549

550

551
551

551

552
552

552
55.3

553

554
554

554

555

556

557

558

559
559

559

560

561
561

561

562

563
563

563

564

565

566

567

568

Carr, Albert

Case, Janies Eber

Chambers, Jacob, M.D

Chandler, George, M.D...
Chappell, Archie B., M.D.
Childs, George Bradley...

Clare, John N

Clark, Franklin

“ Marius E

“ R. D

Clarke, Frederick J. R. ...
Clearwater, Alphonso T. .

“ Byron

Cockburn, T. Van Buren.

Codwise, Edward B

Cole, Theodore

Connelly, Henry C

“ Henry C, Jr....

Coon, Benjamin M

Cornish, James Chilson...

Cox, Charles B

“ Isaac N

“ John P

“ Walter S

Cragsmoor Inn

Crispell Family

Crump, Benjamin F

Cunningham, William D. .

Cure, U. S. Grant

Curle3% Peter D

Cusack, Thomas J

Davis, Charles

“ John C

“ William M

Dawe, Richard

Day, Mary Gage, M.D....

Decker, Albert

‘‘ J. A., M.D

Deckhout, Henry

Dederick, Addison E

Derby, Dr. William C

Derrenbacher, William . . ,

Devany, John R

Dewitt, Daniel M

Deyo, Charles D

“ George

“ Philip

PAGE

. 568

■ 569

■ 569
. 570
. 571

. 571
. 572
^ 572
572
572

573

575

576
576

576

577

578

579
579

579
58c

580

581

582

583

584

585

586

587
587

587

588
588

588

589

590
590

BIOGRAPHICAL.

PAGE

Deyo, Thomas J 590

“ William H 591

Diedling, R. F., M.D 592

Dinan, Thomas 592

Divine, Alice, M.D 592

“ C. Dwight 592

“ Dwight 593

Dolson, Walter C 594

Dooley, Rev. James A 594

Donovan, Daniel E 595

DuBois, C. L 595

“ Nathaniel H 595

DuMond, Charles 596

“ J. D. W., M.D 597

Duncan, M. J 597

Eastgate, J. F. Scoresby, M.D 597

Eastman, Oscar L 598

Eaton, B. C 598

Eckert, William H 598

Ellis, Charles G 598

Elmendorf, Levi 599

Elting, Clarence J 599

“ Philip 600

Eltinge, Maurice W 599

“ William S 600

Everett, Major James H 600

Fellows, Benjamin F 602

Finger, Daniel N 602

Fish, Paul Rogers 603

Flemming, Harry H 603

Foord, Andrew Green, M.D 603

Forst, Jacob 604

Forsyth, James Christie 604

Fowler, Everett 605

“ Joseph M 606

Francisco, Jared H 606

Fratsher, John D 606

Freer, Emery 607

“ Watson Marthis 607

Freitag, John F 607

Freston, Joseph, M.D 608

Frost, Luther H 608

Fuller, Isaiah 609

“ William L 609

Gallagher, Frederick 609

Geroldsek, Walter G 610

Gill, David, Jr 610

“ Walter N 610

Gillespie, W. Scott 61 1

Gillespy, Howard 61 1

Glenerie Falls Hotel 673

Glenerie Hotel 61 1

Goldrick, Philip 612

Gordon, H. S 612

Graham, Nicholas R 613

Gray, Samuel M 614

PAGE

Haines, James W 615

Hall, Charles Mercer 615

Hallett, Benjamin F 616

Hamburger, Urban 616

Harcourt, Charles M 617

Harp, Elting 617

Harris, Benjamin Taylor 618

Harrison, William R 618

Hartshorn, Charles A 618

Hasbrouck, A. C 619

“ C V., M.D 619

“ Gilbert D. B 619

“ Jacob M 620

HasBrouck, Josiah, M.D 620

Hauck, George 622

Hendricks, Clarence P 622

“ Howard 623

Herbert, John F 623

Heston, Eber H., M.D 623

Highmount 624

Hildebrant, William A 624

Hill, R. W 624

Hiltebrant, Conrad 625

Hoornbeek, Frank B. 625

“ Henry F 626

“ John C 626

“ Louis A 627

Houston, Hough 627

Hunt, Frederick A., M.D 627

Ingalls, Frederick W., M.D 627

Irwin, Charles 628

Jagger, Joseph 629

Keator, Frank, M.D 629

Keeler, George G 630

Keeney, Henry T 630

Kelder, Henry 631

Kelsey, Fred. E 631

Kennedy, David, M.D 631

Klock, Jay E 633

Kraft, John E 634

Kuhfeldt, Henry F 635

Kuhlmann, John A 635

Laflin, Col. H. Dwight 635

Lakweland, The 636

Lamb, Daniel 636

Lament, George W 636

Lang, Charles C 637

Lasher, Alfred P 637

Lawatsch, Anthony H 638

Lawrence, Benjamin F 638

Lawton, Absalom Anderson, M.D. . . 638

Le Fevre, Cornelius 1 640

Little, W. E. Eustace, M.D 640

Loerzel, F. W 641

Loughran, Bernard 641

“ Elbert H., M.D 641

BIOGRAPHICAL.

Low, Samuel B

Maben, Hamlin B., M.D.
MacFadden, Elbert F —

Mason, Joseph C

Matthews, Delaney N

Mauterstock, Albert

Maxwell, David

“ James T

McEiitee, Girard L

McGrath, John L

McKenzie, Henry E

McLaughlin, Archie

McNamee, Henry

MeVey, John

Mead, William S

Merikle, George H

Michael, Prof. Myron J,

Millard, James

Miller, Christopher J. . .

Edward B

Mooney, Thomas

Moran, John_ J

Mosher, David, M.D

Mount Mongola House..

Munro, John

Murphy, Francis M

Murray, Christopher A. . .

Myers, William J

Neal, B. Franklin, M.D. .

Neidlinger, Adam

Norris, Albert M

Nott, J. V. Henry

O’Dea, Thomas F., V.S..

O’Neil, Edward

“ Henry

Ostrander, Dewitt W. . . ,

Osterhoudt, Hector

O’Sullivan, Richard . . . .

Ougheltree, Edgar E

Overbaugh, R. B

Palmer, Albert H., M.D.

Palen, Burton B

“ Frank A

Parker, Alton B

Phinney, James E

Powley, Frank R

Pratt, George W

“ Harcourt J

Quinn, William G

Ransom, Charles A

Reed, Albert, M.D

Reel, C. Gordon

Relyea, Anthony D

Re3molds, Henry H

Rice, Jacob

Richard, Harrison H —

PAGE

. 642
. 642

. 643

• 643
. 643
. 644
. 644
. 645
. 645

. 646
. 646
. 647
. 647

. 648
. 648

. 649
. 649
. 650
. 650
. 650
. 650
. 651
. 651
. 651
. 652
. 652
. 652
. 653

• 653
. 654
. 655
. 655

. 655
. 655

. 656
. 656
. 657
. 657
. 658
. 6s8
. 658

• 659
. 659
. 6s9
. 662
. 663
. 663
. 663
.. 663
, . 664
, . 664
.. 665
,. 66=5
.. 666
.. 666
. . 667

Rider, W. H

Riseley, W. C

Ritter, Henry

Rockefeller, Willard D

Rose, Alonzo

“ J. Graham

“ W. C

“ W. R

Ross, George W., M.D

Rowe, Albert

Rundel, Gustave C

Rusk, John

Sahler, Charles Oliver, M.D.

Saltzmann, J. Leonard

Sammons, Warren

Sauer, John

Schantz, Philip

Schmidtkonz, A

Schmitt, Julius

Schoonmaker, John D

“ Julius

“ J. U

Schuman, George F

Schwarzwalder, W. O

Searing, John W

Sears, Hector

Seeley, Frank Barrows

Shafer, Col. C. B

Shanley, James

Shull, John E

Siemon, George

Simpson, Augusus J

“ F. F

“ Jay H

Sims, Nathan Anderson....

Sleight, Richard E

Smiley, Albert K

Smith, John Tewell

“ William, F. M

Wright J., V.S

Snj’-der, Robert A

“ Thomas

“ William B

Soop, Henry C — .

Spaulding, Charles A

Staples, Alvah S

“ Stephen

Stow, Daniel B

Streeter, Charles M

Sully, Daniel

Tanner, J. Hartley

TenBroeck, Charles C

Terwilliger, E. N

“ H. C

“ Uriah E

PAGE

. 667
. 667
. 667
. 667
. 668
. 668
. 668
. 669
. 669
. 669
. 669
. 670
. 670
. 671
. 672
. 672
. 672
. 673
. 673
. 674
. 675
. 676
. 676
• 677
. 677
. 678
. 679

. 680
. 680
680
,. 681
,. 681
,. 681
,. 682
,. 682
,. 682
.. 682

.. 685
.. 685
.. 683
.. 686
.. 686
.. 687
.. 687
.. 687
.. 676
. . 687
.. 688

689

690

691
691
691

Xll

BIOGRAPHICAL.

Thompson, Col. G. W

“ R. F

Tice, John A

Tobey, F., Jr

“ George F

Townsend, William H., Jr

Tracy, Joseph S

Tremper, Jacob H

Turck, William J

Van Aken, George

Van Buren, Augustus H

“ Dewitt

Van Etten, Amos

“ John G. ...i

Van Gaasbeek, George H., M.D

Van Gelder, Jacob

Van Floevenberg, Henry, M.D

Van Orden, Cornelius L

Van Wagenen, Easton

“ Louis B

“ Virgil B

Van Wagoner, MacDonald

Van Winkle, E. H

Van Zandt, L. A

Wagner, Franz X

Washburn, George W
Watson, John T. .

“ Robert A.
Webster Grove ...

Wells, H. S

Weiner, Isaac N. ..
Westbrook, Frederick L

Whalen, John J

Wieber, Henry E

Wilbur, Edmund M

Winchell, Azaris

Winne, Alonzo E , . .

Winter, Daniel T

“ Edward

Wolven, Noah

Woolsey, Lewis H

Young, Charles

“ George

‘‘ George A. . . . . .

Zeigler, William .......

Zoller, Daniel H

PAGE

. 692

■ 693

. 693

. 694

■ 694

, 694

, 696

. 696

, 697

697

698

699

700

701

702

703

«|.4

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